THE STORY OF THE STATES 

EDITED BY 

ELBKIDGE S BROOKS 



THE STORY OF THE STATES 

.ilE STORY OF VERMONT 



BY 



JOHN L' HEATON 




Illustratiotis by L J Bridgjnan 




BOS TO: 
D LOTHROP COMPANY 

WASHINGTON OPPOSITE BROMFIELD STREET 



Copyright, 1S89, 

BY 

D. LoTHROP Company. 




PREFACE. 



If that land only is happy which has no history, then has Ver- 
mont been most unfortunate. In the brief period since white 
men first made their homes within sight of the Green Mountains, 
their lives have been menaced by savages, their lands coveted 
by robbers clothed with law and power, their families driven 
forth in terror when invading armies came among them, while 
the decisive battles of three great wars were fought on the 
lake of their glowing sunsets. Their State was the first ad- 
mitted to the Union, after a forty years' struggle for its rights 
which happily has had no parallel in this country. And when, 
years later, slavery was crushed and the Union saved in the 
cruel war whose wounds time has not yet healed, no soldiers of 
the North won so great glory or paid for it so heavy a price 
in suffering and in loss as did the grandsons of the Green 
Mountain Boys. 

Poets, romancists and historians who have caught their in- 
spiration from Vermont's annals have confined their attention 
to the eighteenth century, as if after those years of storm there 
was no more to tell. But tales of war are not the only ones 
worth hearing. The record of a century of Statehood, with its 
peaceful victories and industrial accomplishments, the life of 
its people and the part they have played in the vaster history 
of the Republic — this as well as the old stirring days of war 
and outlawry, must be studied if one would know what claim 
the Fourteenth State has upon the gratitude and respect of 
the country. 



PREFACE. 

To tell the story of the State's early trials — which can 
never be too often rehearsed lest her sons should forget to be 
grateful for their ancestry \ to add to this an account of the 
more recent events that have escaped the attention they de- 
serve ; and to include so far as possible in this brief recital 
the growth of arts and learning, the development of industry 
and the evolution of laws, customs and institutions to meet the 
needs of a gracious, temperate and valiant people — such has 
been the purpose of the writer. Not only to the people of 
Vermont, but to the citizens of every state in our broad land, is 
the story of the Green Mountain State offered as a help, an 
inspiration and a record of sturdy endeavor. 



^^-^^t^-^'Vv-^-Xv. 'N, . I '>~-0_c.-A^-^ 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE OLD WARS II 

1609-1763 

CHAPTER II. 

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 38 

1750-1775- 

CHAPTER III. 

THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY 63 

1775-1783- 

CHAPTER IV. 

BUILDING THE STATE gi 

1776-1791. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE PARTIES DIVIDE . . . . . . . II5 

T798-1824. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HOMESPUN FOLK . . . . . 

1825. 



139 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE GREAT WEST ....... 163 

1825-1850. 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER VIII. 

HOME HAPPENINGS .... 

183O-1850. 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE TEMPERANCE REFORM 

1844-1888. 



SINCE THE WAR 



CHAPTER XII. 
1865-1889. 



184 



208 



CHAPTER X. 

THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE 223 

1840-1860. 

CHAPTER XI. 

IN THE FIELD 242 

1861-1865. 



269 



THE CHRONOLOGICAL STORY 299 

THE people's COVENANT 309 

BOOKS RELATING TO VERMONT 314 

INDEX 317 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 
Green Mountain Boys on the march ..... Frontis. 

" Slowly and cautiously they floated on." Initial . . . . ii 

" The first white man " ......... 15 

The service of the captives ........ 23 

" It is the bell " 31 

The "beech seal." Initial ........ 38 

Dr. Adams's stool of repentance ....... 42 

The outlaw's proclamation ........ 49 

The judges judged ......... 57 

" Molly Stark " cannon. I7iitial ....... 63 

Parson Allen's appeal ......... 67 

In hiding from the Hessians ........ 75 

Allen and Runnals .......... 85 

A Hessian. Initial ......... 91 

Ethan Allen explains the delay ....... 95 

An old-time election ......... loi 

Ethan Allen monument, Burlington ....... 109 

Macdonough's medal. Initial . . . . . . . 1 1 ^ 

In the Green Mountains. Mt. Mansfield . . . . . 119 

The prophecy of victory . . . . . . . . 125 

Statue of Lafayette, Burlington, Vt. . . . . . . 133 

The spinning-wheel. Initial . . . . . . . . 139 

The singing-school . . . . . . . . . . 143 



At the tavern 



An old-fashioned hand-loom 



151 



Borrowing fire ........... icj 

A "Prairie Schooner." Initial ....... 163 

A quilting bee ........... 167 

The railway coach of our fathers ....... 173 



179 



The State House. Initial ........ 184 

Lake Memphremagog ......... 1S8 

Sugar-making: the critical moment ...... 195 



ILL U STRATI ONS. 



" When every man was his own cobbler" 

An old-time tipple. Initial 

Signing the pledge .... 

A raid on the rumseller 

A Bloomer ..... 

Eagle Bay, Lake Champlain. Initial 

Dinah Morris's certificate of freedom 

A base-ball club volunteering for service 

In a marble quarry .... 

"lS6l." Initial .... 

The sleeping sentry 

The Vermonters at Gettysburg : Stannard 

For the soldiers .... 

At a creamery. Initial 

University of Vermont 

On Lake Champlain 

Ice yachting on Lake Champlain 



's Charge 



Page. 
203 
20S 
211 
215 
219 
223 
227 
233 
239 
242 
246 

253 
263 
269 

273 
281 

293 



THE STORY OF VERMONT 



CHAPTER I. 



THE OLD WARS, 




UST as the sun was 
sinking in the west 
one summer afternoon 
1 o n or ao^o a band of 
Indians paddled their 
canoes along the edge 
of a beautiful lake in 
the heart of the woods. 
Slowly and cautiously 
they floated on, 
stealing their silent way under the shelter of the 
shore as if expecting the approach of an enemy. 
Yet though their course was cautiously chosen, 
there was less of apprehension than of curiosity in 
the gaze with which they scanned the horizon to 
the northward ; for this was a strong war party of 
tried and chosen braves, who bore themselves with 
the air of men used to victory. 



12 THE OLD WARS. 

The scene was one of wild and singular beauty. 
On either hand the shore rose, now abruptly, now 
with gentler slopes leading the eye back from the 
water's edo'e, into rounded mountains covered to 
their very tops with the virgin forest save where 
the glistening walls of cliffs peeped through the 
foliage. The shore was irregular, curving out at 
times into points and headlands and partly shutting 
off the view where, to north and south, yet more 
blue water gleamed in the distance. The lake's 
surface mirrored many a leaning tree or jutting 
crag or clinging wreath of ivy; but nowhere on all 
its surface did it give back the reflection of any 
human habitation. Nor path, nor house, nor clear- 
ing, nor rising film of smoke met the traveler's 
eye. But for the little fleet in the foreground, the 
wilderness was apparently unseen and untenanted 
by any human soul. 

The sun had passed behind the western mount- 
ains, the cool shadows of evenino- were beo-innino- 
to gather, when suddenly another fleet of canoes 
swept round a point of land ahead and came into 
full view. There was a moment of indecision and 
then the new-comers swerved outward from their 
course and retreated an arrow's flight from the 
shore; the first party was already landing in hot 
haste, makino- the woodland echoes rino- with sav- 
age yells of defiance. 



THE OLD WARS. 1 3 

The day was too far spent to fight the battle for 
which both sides were eager ; the night was passed 
in singing the war songs of their tribes, in prepar- 
ing their weapons for the fray which would begin 
with the dawn, and in shouting threats and boasts 
from fleet to shore now scarce a bow-shot apart. 
When the morning broke, the second band secured 
their canoes upon the shelving beach and advanced 
to meet the foe. During the night the latter had 
been busily at work with their rude stone axes and 
had built from slender poles held together with 
twisted withes a rude palisade to serve as a slight 
defence in case of need. Yet they hardly seemed 
to require such means of shelter, for they outnum- 
bered their assailants three to one ; scornino^ to 
take refuge within the enclosure, they eagerly 
pressed forward on the level space without. 

And then a strange thing happened. For out of 
the canoes of the smaller party, where till now 
they had remained unseen, stepped three mysterious 
figures clad, each, from head to foot in steel. The 
sun rising over the lake shone full on their bur- 
nished cuirasses and tipped their helmet crests 
with dazzling light. One who seemed the leader 
boldly advanced till he stood midway between the 
lines, carrying his arquebuse at rest ; the other two, 
similarly armed, took up their position on the flank 
of the astonished savages. Never before had the 



14 THE OLD WARS. 

red-men looked upon such a sight as the three steel- 
clad warriors ; but their superstitious awe of the 
strangers quickly deepened into abject terror when 
they saw the fire flash from the leveled arquebuses 
and heard the thunder of their discharge, and when 
one after another of their chiefs and leaders fell be- 
fore the unseen missiles. Of what use was resist- 
ance against these mysterious visitors who wielded 
the lightnings to strike dead those who dared oppose 
them and upon whose charmed bodies arrows could 
not prevail ? It was not long before the frightened 
braves fled in the utmost confusion, leaving many 
of their number dead upon the shore, and others as 
prisoners bound for the torture. 

Such was the battle which, on the thirtieth of 
July, 1609, Samuel de Champlain, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of New France, waged with the Iroquois upon 
the western shore of the lake which bears his name. 
ThouQ-h but three white men and less than three 
hundred Indians were engaged in it; though for 
months Europe did not hear of It and even then 
did not deem it of much consequence in compari- 
son with more engrossing warfare nearer home, 
it is no exao-o-eration to call it one of the world's 
decisive engagements, upon whose issue the fate 
of a continent may have rested. For if France, 
whose power in America Champlain represented, 
was then the foremost nation in Europe, the Iro- 



THE OLD WARS. 



15 



quois were no less prominent among the savage 
tribes of the New World. They held the mountain 
passes which were the key to the continent. They 
were the acknowledged masters of the route which 
led by Lake Champlain and the Hudson from the 
St. Lawrence to the sea, dividing the Eastern from 
the Alleghany tribes — that route which was then 




THE FIRST WHITE MAN. 

the scene of bloody warfare between Indian and 
Indian and which was to witness even more deadly 
conflict between white man and red, Frenchman 
and Englishman, Tory and Colonist. By their 
strength, their military sagacity and their com- 
manding position they had almost silenced oppo- 



1 6 THE OLD WARS. 

sition to their sway over a region extending from 
the lakes to the sea and from the St. Lawrence 
to the Chesapeake. Their friendship would have 
been invaluable to France in the long struggle 
which followed for the possession of the western 
world. Their resentment was implacable and dearly 
did the French pay for having incurred it. 

But all this Champlain, fresh from the gay courts 
of Europe and ignorant of forest politics, could not 
be expected to know. He had come sailing up the 
St. Lawrence River from far-away France. He had 
made firm friends of the Indians of Huron or Mon- 
tagnais blood and willingly went at their request 
to chastise the h"oquois who had driven them from 
their ancient hunting-grounds and even now pursued 
them with relentless hostility. He was the first 
white man who ever saw what is now the State of 
Vermont, and his published narrative of his advent- 
ures contains the best account which we possess 
of that commonwealth as it existed nearly three 
hundred years ago. 

Champlain ascended the Sorel River to the falls 
in his shallop and then pressed on with sixty 
Indians and twenty-four light bark canoes. He 
passed from the river into the lake, whose beauty 
awoke in him, as it still does in each fresh ob- 
server, delight and admiration. " There are many 
pretty islands here," he says, "low and containing 



THE OLD WARS. IJ 

very fine woods and meadows with abundance of 
fowl and such animals of the chase as stags, fallow 
deer, fawns, roebucks, bears and others which go 
from the mainland to the islands. We captured a 
large number of these animals. There are also 
many beavers, not only in this river, but also in 
numerous little ones that flow into it. These 
regions, although they are pleasant, are not in- 
habited by savages on account of their wars ; but 
they withdraw as far as possible from the rivers 
into the interior not to be suddenly surprised." 

Through this beautiful but desolate region 
Champlain with his Indian guides proceeded for 
some time, traveling southward from evening until 
well into the night; lying concealed by day the 
better to avoid surprise, and taking, constantly, 
keen note of his surroundings. He saw ahead of 
him the high peaks of the Adirondacks and on his 
left the lower hills of Vermont, The white eleam 
of the limestone rocks that tinged these latter 
heights he mistook for snow. 

But though Champlain was thus the first white 
man to see Vermont even he never set foot upon 
its soil. His mission upon the lake was war and 
not exploration, and for nearly its whole length 
he skirted the western bank until he found the 
Iroquois near Ticonderoga. And when the Mon- 
tagnais braves had chased the flying remnants of 



1 8 THE OLD WARS. 

the defeated force to their hearts' content, it was 
still upon the New York shore that they camped 
for the night and recalled the ecstasies of combat 
in the savage delights of the torture. When the 
dusk of evening came the lurid light of the camp- 
fire fell upon a scene which must have seemed 
strange indeed to Christian e3'es. 

Champlain tells us that, when all was ready for 
the torture and an Iroquois captive was bound to 
the stake that the barbaric revel might begin, he 
was urged to take a torch and, as became a brave 
commander, taste first the joy of burning the poor 
victim's flesh. Till then he had never witnessed 
the full enormity of the tortures which the Indians 
practiced upon their captured enemies and, unable 
to bear the sight, he seized his arquebuse and shot 
the uncomplaining savage dead. 

All this happened in 1609, some weeks before 
Hendrik Hudson sailed up the North River to 
Albany and eleven years before the landing of the 
Pilgrims at Plymouth ; yet even before that early 
date France had entered upon her struggle with 
Great Britain and Spain for the possession of the 
New World, and her representative had nearly a 
century earlier claimed for the most Christian king 
an empire on its untrodden shores as large as all 
Europe, the boundaries and extent of which indeed 
were at the time unknown. 



THE OLD WARS. 1 9 

It was in the year 1534 that Jacques Cartier, a 
bold sailor commissioned by the king of France to 
undertake the work of exploration, discovered partly 
by accident the bay of St. Lawrence and spent 
the brief Northern summer in exploring its shores. 
Returning the following year, he reached the mouth 
of the mighty river St. Lawrence. This he at first 
hoped might prove to be the long-looked-for west- 
ward channel to the East Indies, but the native 
dwellers along the river assured him that its water 
was fresh and that it came from inland seas, de- 
scending rapids in its course. 

Though somewhat disappointed by this infor- 
mation, Cartier persevered and by the end of 
October had reached the Indian village of Hoche- 
laga, which he rechristened Mount Royal, now 
Montreal, in honor of his king. He had been 
for the most part well treated by the Indians, 
though Donnacona, the great chief who had his 
headquarters at Quebec and lorded it over the 
tribes of the middle river, was opposed to his 
further explorations. The natives at Hochelaga 
were especially kind to the French adventurer. 
They showed him their village, a strongly fortified 
place with a single gate, and the " stones and peb- 
bles for the defence of it " which they had heaped 
up within. They supplied his ships with fresh 
stores of corn and fish. On the second day they 



20 THE OLD WARS. 

led Cartier to the top of the hill and, looking out 
for miles around upon the dense forest, threaded 
here and there by streams narrowing in the dis- 
tance until they were lost to view, they told him 
of the country that lay beyond. Westward, they 
said, were great fresh water seas and a mighty river 
flowing through fair and rich regions to the ocean. 
To the north was a wilderness full of game and 
pierced by numerous rivers. Due south, follow- 
ing the smaller stream which lay before their eyes, 
was a lake shut in by hills. The great river of the 
Southwest was the Mississippi, the nearer lake was 
Lake Champlain, and all about them lay the land 
which Cartier had claimed for the king. 

Had the Indians known of Cartier's purpose, had 
they foreseen the anxieties and hardships in which 
the coming of the whites would involve their race, 
and the doom which was to be the end of all, they 
would not so kindly have received the first white 
men who ventured into their land. But not for 
many years thereafter were the Indians seriously 
troubled by French aggressions. It is true that 
Cartier and other captains came again to explore 
the northern waters, a little discouraged by the fact 
that they had found neither the passage to India 
nor any sign of precious metals; it is true that 
private enterprise supplemented the efforts of the 
Crown by sending every year small vessels filled 



THE OLD WARS. 21 

with hardy seamen to prosecute the fisheries on 
the Newfoundland banks ; but it was not till well 
within the next century that the exploration of the 
regions lying about the St. Lawrence was con- 
tinued with much vigor or success. The genera- 
tion that had welcomed Cartier had vanished 
before the day of Champlain, and even the village 
of Hochelaga had utterly disappeared when he 
arrived upon its site. 

With the coming of Champlain the history of 
French conquest and exploration in America fairly 
begins. That brave and prudent commander made 
at the outset the fatal mistake of attacking the 
Iroquois instead of seeking to conciliate them. 
Had he adopted the latter course France might 
have occupied the continent so securely as to defy 
the efforts of the British to dislodge her. The 
Hudson and the Mohawk might have been hers as 
well as the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes and the 
Upper Mississippi and its tributaries, and her armies 
might have hemmed the English colonies in upon 
the seacoast, thrown against them the full power of 
the Indian nations and finally left them not a foot- 
hold. But it was not to be expected that the 
haughty Iroquois would soon forgive or forget the 
intruders who had compassed their defeat before 
the very eyes of the despised Hurons and caused 
the song of victory to be raised by every tribe of 



2 2 THE OLD WARS. 

Algonquin blood along the St. Lawrence and the 
lakes. It was not long before they were enabled to 
obtain firearms from the Dutch settlements about 
Albany, paying the thrifty burghers, we may be 
sure, dearly for them in peltry. Thus armed they 
menaced for many years the very existence of the 
French settlements. 

For the present, however, there was no fear of 
reprisals by way of Lake Champlain. The Canadian 
colonies passed through years of alternating pros- 
perity and adversity, gradually extending their grasp 
westward and gaining more and more influence wdth 
the tribes of Huron blood, but never succeedino- in 
placating the Iroquois. French missionaries and 
French explorers had threaded and mapped the 
great lakes and the sources of the Mississippi before 
it became necessary again to lead a war party down 
Lake Champlain. 

By 1665 the Iroquois had become so formidable 
and so threatened and harassed the feeble colonies 
alono- the St. Lawrence that two rcQ-iments were 
sent from France to reduce them. Courcelles, gov- 
ernor of Canada, made the mistake of sending south 
a winter expedition for this purpose. Unused to 
the rigors of the climate, the troops reached the 
frontier town of Schenectady half dead with cold 
and hunger and would have fallen an easy prey to 
the Indians had not a Dutch buroher named Arendt 

O 



^4 ^ 




THE SERVICE OF THE CAPTIVES. 



THE OLD WARS. 25 

Van Curler foiled their purpose by sending them 
on a wild-goose chase after other enemies who, he 
said, were advancing upon them. The Indians not 
only forgave Curler his trick, but thought so highly 
of him for that and other magnanimous deeds that 
for many years the governors of New York were 
called by them " Corlaer," even as they styled the 
French governors, after the days of Frontenac, 
" Onontio." Lake Champlain itself was long known 
as Corlaer's Lake, the worthy Dutchman having 
been drowned in its waters while on a trip to 
visit Courcelles in Canada. 

Two years later the French were enabled to make 
a peace with the h'oquois which lasted for twenty 
years ; this interval they busily employed in cement- 
ing their friendship with the forest folks. Despite 
their utmost effort, they made little progress in 
gaining the affections of the Iroquois, but their 
pioneers met with more marked favor among the 
Indians of other tribes. Alono- the whole leno-th 
of the chain of great lakes French missions were 
established, French priests baptized the red-men 
into the Christian church, French hunters, voyagcui^s 
and fur-traders took to themselves Indian wives 
and lived in comity with the people. Their interest 
in the moral welfare of the Indians was one secret 
of the French influence over them, the considerable 
number of intermarriages was another and still a 



26 THE OLD WARS. 

third was the never-faihng politeness of the French 
diplomats. They carried into the forest all the arts 
and graces of the courts ; they treated the chiefs 
with the deference they imagined due to them ; 
they observed all the punctilios of Indian custom. 
They are said to have gone so far on some occa- 
sions as to sit naked in council after the Indian 
fashion. However this may be, they were certainly 
adepts in dealing with the Indians. 

The peace closed in 16S7 by another war so sud- 
den and so disastrous to the French colonies that 
Montreal was taken and burned and a thousand 
people put to death by the Indians. The province 
was on the verge of ruin when the arrival from 
France of Count Frontenac with a strong body of 
troops put the Indians again on the defensive. A 
treaty had scarcely been concluded when war broke 
out between France and Great Britain. 

The French colonies in Canada, though hardly 
recovered from their own danger, projected a winter 
raid on the settlements in New York. The raiders, 
following the bloody trail along Lake Champlain, 
fell upon Schenectady one bitter night in February, 
1690, massacred sixty settlers and took prisoners 
twenty-seven of the Dutch burghers, who were 
now subjects of Great Britain, the New York prov- 
ince having passed under British control a quarter 
of a century earlier. So cold was the night that 



THE OLD WARS. 27 

twenty-five of the fugitives from the scene of fire 
and slaughter reached Albany with limbs so badly 
frozen as to require amputation. It was a poor 
requital of Van Curler's kindness. 

This was not the only raid made upon the English 
settlements in those fierce old times. At Salmon 
Falls, New Hampshire, thirty persons were killed 
and many prisoners taken. At Dover twenty-three 
were killed. In all these expeditions the Indians 
and their French allies passed southward by way of 
the Sorel and Lake Champ] ain and crossed Vermont 
through the valley of the Winooski and White 
rivers, or along the course of Otter Creek ; if the 
attack was to fall upon New York they passed by 
Lake George, Wood's Creek and the Upper Hud- 
son. Pursuing the same way home with reddened 
hatchets and the scalps of white men at their 
belts, the savages dyed the soil of Vermont with 
the blood of butchered prisoners. 

It must have been by the Winooski trail that the 
descent on Deerfield, Mass., was made in 1704. 
The peace of Ryswick, patched up in Europe, in 
1697, scarcely put an end to Indian ravages upon 
the New England settlements and when, less than 
six years later, war was again declared between 
Great Britain and France, the Canadians were 
prompt to take advantage of it. 

There were at the time no English towns in all 



28 THE OLD WARS. 

the State of Vermont, but in Central Massachusetts 
venturesome pioneers had planted a number of 
towns. One of the fairest of these was Deerfield, 
a place of considerable size and importance. An 
attack upon this town was one of the first fruits of 
the new war. It was an attack so cruel in its 
nature that it may fitly be chosen to typify the 
brutalities of Indian warfare and to illustrate the 
dangers which the pioneers in the American conti- 
nent encountered. 

In the long, silent and secret march through 
the snow-laden trees of the forest, in the sudden- 
ness and fierceness of the attack, in the cruel vin- 
dictiveness and bloody deeds of the savages and 
in their forced march to Canada with the remnant 
of the colonists, the Deerfield raid was precisely like 
a score of others witnessed in those bad, dark days. 
It was exceptional only in the size of the town and 
the number of prisoners taken. Many persons 
were killed, a few escaped, but no less than one 
hundred and twelve were carried captive to Canada, 
there to be held for ransoni. The Rev. John 
Williams, pastor of the Deerfield Congregational 
Church, had two of his children slain in the raid 
and was made a prisoner with five others. 

The first Sunday on the march Mr. Williams ob- 
tained from his captors the privilege of holding a ser- 
vice at a point in the southeastern corner of Vermont. 



THE OLD WARS. 29 

The prisoners were gathered together upon the 
snow in a glade of the forest, a dusky fringe of red 
men encompassed them about and the woodland 
echoes gave back the unfamiliar sound as they sang 
the first Christian hymn that ever rose in the wilds 
of Vermont. Not a soul was present who had not 
lost friends and relatives by the axe, and all had 
seen their homes in flames. It must have been a 
solemn and affectinq- sermon which the eood 
preacher gave that day. His text was Lamenta- 
tions i. 18: " My virgins and my young men have 
gone into captivity." 

It is a pleasure to know that Mr. Williams lived 
long after, to tell the story of that dreadful raid, 
and that the sufferings of the captives were soon 
terminated by their exchange. The grandson of 
Mr. Williams was in after years to become the 
historian of Vermont, and Williams himself has 
left a printed account of his captivity. 

The French have a different version of this raid, 
and one which sounds much prettier in the telling. 
The good priest Nicholas of Caughnawaga, so they 
say, had urged the Indians of his mission to collect 
and send to France the pelts of many otters, 
beavers, foxes and other animals in return for a bell 
for their church. On the way over the ship which 
bore the bell was taken by the British; the bell 
found its way to Deerfield and there it hung, the 



30 THE OLD WARS. 

popish inscription erased from its brazen side, until 
Father Nicholas and the braves of the tribe, in the 
dead of the winter, marched to rescue it from the 
hands of the heretics. With infinite labor they 
carried it through the snow till the shore of Lake 
Champlain was reached; there they buried it. 
When spring broke and the snow was gone, a band 
of young Indians brought the bell from its far hid- 
ing place to Caughnawaga. And when the people 
of the village heard the sound of the approaching 
bell, its clapper swinging against its sides as the 
young men bore it on a pole between them, they 
crossed themselves and cried in awed exultation, 
" It is the bell." 

Whether the tale be true or no, certain it is that 
a little old bell, the inscription on whose side had 
been cut away, long hung in the belfry of the 
church of the Saut St. Louis at Caughnawaga, 
and all the Indians said no other bell had so sweet 
a sound. 

But the stao^e was set for vaster scenes. The 
Indian depredations upon the English settlements 
were soon almost unheeded amid the stirring prep- 
arations made in England and seconded by the 
colonies for the conquest of Canada. In 1709 an 
expedition was projected for the capture of Quebec, 
but it accomplished little beyond cutting a good 
road from Albany to Lake George, A similar at- 



THE OLD WARS. 



31 



tempt was made in 171 1 in conjunction with a fleet 
sent up the St. Lawrence. A great storm dispersed 
the fleet and the land force disbanded. The peace 
of Utrecht in 171 3 put an end to the fighting, and 
it was more than thirty years before the stirring- 
music of the fife and drum and the tramp of regi- 
ments were heard again by the shore of Lake 
Champlain. 

It was during this interval that the first actual 
settlement was made in Vermont. In 1724 the 
State of Massachusetts built Fort Dummer in the 
southeast corner, near what is now Brattleborough ; 
one or two smaller forts or rather block-houses 
were afterward erected in the same vicinity. But 
in 1 73 1 the French es- 
tablished a military 
post — first at Addison, 
Vt., and later at Crown 
Point on the New York 
side of Lake Champ- 
lain and, the war re- 
commencing in 1 744, 
the presence of this 
post acted as a barrier 
to any further settle- 
ment of Vermont until 
the close of the last 



great struggle. There 




' IT IS THE BELL," 



32 THE OLD WARS. 

were a few huts nestling under the walls of Fort 
Dummer and of Bridgman's fort ; there were a few 
patches of corn, a little clearing here and there 
where timber had been felled for the block-houses, 
and that was all. 

The immediate cause of hostilities in i 744 was 
the policy of the French who were building a line 
of forts to connect the St. Lawrence and the Mis- 
sissippi, on land claimed by Great Britain. To 
humble the pride of France the great expedition to 
Louisbourg was undertaken. It was completely 
successful, but when peace was signed at Aix-la- 
Chapelle in 1748, the fortress was returned, and 
each side resumed precisely the same territorial 
possessions it had held four years before. 

Such a peace could not last long. In 1 756 the war 
which was finally to settle the fate of America was 
declared. Already, in 1755, Braddock's ill-fated ex- 
pedition had been sent against Fort Duquesne, on 
the ground that the French were encroaching upon 
English possessions granted to the Ohio company, 
and in the same year an expedition set out for 
Niagara under Governor Shirley of Massachusetts; 
one under General William Johnson was also sent 
against Crown Point. The latter oot no further 
than Fort Edward where it was met by the French 
under Dieskau. A scouting party of about a 
thousand colonial troops under Colonel Ephraim 



THE OLD WARS. 33 

Williams of Massachusetts was met by the 
main army of Dieskau and utterly destroyed. 
In the battle which followed Johnson gained the 
upper hand, but failed to follow up his advantage. 
The campaign of 1756 was also an utter failure. 
The short summer was wasted in preparations and 
the winter closed in before a single blow was struck, 
except by the French, who captured the important 
fort at Oswego with fourteen hundred prisoners, 
some of whom were massacred by the Indian allies. 

In the campaign of 1757, which was not less 
disastrous to the British arms, John Stark who was 
in later days to become the hero of Bennington, 
distinguished himself at the head of a small party 
of New Hampshire rangers. He was engaged in 
Vermont in a desperate battle with a superior force 
of French and Indians and the night fell upon his 
little band — victorious indeed, but likely to perish 
in the wilderness from cold, for it was midwinter 
and many of the party were wounded. 

The command made a night march to Lake 
George, and Stark with two others traveled its 
entire length upon the ice to Fort William 
Henry at its foot; here he organized a relief party 
with sledo-es to brins^ off the wounded. Instead 
of staying himself under shelter he returned with 
the rescuing party and helped to drag one of the 
sledges back to the fort, having been continuously 



34 THE OLD WARS. 

fighting and working for fifty-six hours. It was at 
Fort WilHam Henry later in the same year that 
the worst of the series of massacres which were 
permitted to stain the good name of France oc- 
curred. General Montcalm with a superior force 
from the north compelled the surrender of the fort 
from General Monroe who occupied it. The three 
thousand prisoners of war taken that day were ex- 
posed to the merciless assaults of the Indian allies ; 
by savage tomahawks fully fifteen hundred w^ere 
slain. The French have always held that it was 
impossible for Montcalm to restrain his allies, but 
it was difficult to convince the New EnQ-landers of 
the truth of this plea. 

The fall of Forts William Henry and Oswego 
made the situation of the English colonies des- 
perate indeed, but the genius of William Pitt, 
prime minister of Great Britain, changed defeat to 
victory. Under the direction of that great war 
minister Louisbourg was again reduced and Fort 
Duquesne occupied by a superior force in 1758. A 
third army under General Abercrombie was re- 
pulsed in an attack upon Fort Ticonderoga which 
put an end to the operations for that year. Major 
Israel Putnam and Major Rogers were left in Ver- 
mont to watch the French at Crown Point and 
Ticonderoga across Lake Champlain. 

It was while engaged in this duty that Major 



■ THE OLD WARS. 35 

Putnam was captured by the Indians and bound to 
a tree for the torture. The fire, we are told, was 
actually applied to the heaps of dry fagots about 
his feet when a French officer dashed away the kin- 
dling brands and released Putnam. He was carried 
as a prisoner of war to Canada, where he made the 
acquaintance of many other distinguished but un- 
fortunate colonials, among them Mrs. Howe, the 
" fair captive " whose history is typical of New 
England life in those days. 

She must have been a very beautiful woman, for 
so she is invariably described. Her first husband, 
Mr. Phipps, was killed near Fort Dummer by 
the Indians in 1745. Her second, Mr. Howe, met 
a like fate at Bridgman's Fort in 1756, and Mrs. 
Howe was taken with her seven children to Canada, 
suffering incredible hardships on the oft-traveled 
bloody Vermont trail. Once in Canada, she was, 
by the influence of General Peter Schuyler, him- 
self a prisoner at the time, released, after many 
sufferings. 

It was in the year 1759 that the French power in 
America received the final crushino: blow. Wolfe's 
victory on the Plains of Abraham gave England 
the strongest fortress in the new world, and 
Amherst, at the head of fourteen thousand men, 
drove the French from Crown Point and Ticon- 
deroga with comparatively little loss. In the fol- 



36 THE OLD WARS. 

lowing year the British armies were concentrated 
before Montreal, and the easy task of compelling 
its surrender was accomplished. The French had 
proved themselves daring in war, fertile in resource, 
unequalled in finesse, but British pluck and per- 
severance had conquered at last, and the peace of 
1763 confirmed to Great Britain undisputed rule 
in North America. 

In all these wars and forays, what is now the 
State of Vermont bore a most conspicuous part. 
Its streams were the highways of the restless In- 
dians, its forests sheltered the hiding savages and 
the beautiful lake which is its western boundary 
saw more fierce fis^htino- than the St. Lawrence or 
the Hudson. The very importance of the region as 
a battle m-ound, and the fierceness with which the 
opposing forces struggled for possession had greatly 
delayed its settlement, while Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire and New York were rapidly filling up. 

With the welcome peace of 1 763, however, the set- 
tlement of the new province began in earnest ; only 
a few years, comparatively speaking, passed before 
the unbroken Avilderness became a thriving colony 
whose military valor did much to turn the scale 
in the war for American freedom, and the homely 
virtues of whose citizens were remarkable even in 
the land and days of steady habits. 

The green hill-slopes and still more verdant 



THE OLD WARS. 2>7 

valleys of the new land were being wistfully sighted 
by certain of the restless settlers in adjacent col- 
onies. As early as the close of the French War, it 
is asserted, they began to move toward the more 
attractive sections. With true prophetic fervor 
they declared " the land is given us for inheritance," 
and the new country received its christening when, 
in 1763, on the top of Mount Pisgah like another 
Moses, the Rev. Samuel Peters looked over the 
promised land and where, unlike the mighty 
prophet of old, he and his followers broke a bottle 
of spirits and named the country Verd Mont. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 




ERMONT was discov- 
ered and explored by 
Frenchmen from the 
north. It was settled 
and held by English- 
men from the south. 
This difference was 
typical of the contrast- 
ing methods of the two 
great colonizing pow- 
ers. The French overran the continent, named its 
rivers and lakes, and held relations with the savage 
tribes far and near. The English paid less atten- 
tion to exploration and to the conciliation of the 
Indians, whom they despised and often ill-treated. 

The friendship of the warlike Iroquois indeed 
stood them in good stead. But for this they were 
indebted not so much to any act of their own as to 
the hostile expedition of Champlain and the kindly 
conciliation of the Dutch settlers and traders of 
New Amsterdam. These, even after Nevv' York had 

3& 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 39 

become a British province, continued to transact 
a large proportion of the traffic with the Indians. 
While the French colonists were few and widely 
scattered, seldom pursuing husbandry or any in- 
dustry save the fur trade, the English built up from 
a score of sea-coast centres comparatively solid 
and compact settlements. These took firm root in 
the soil, they became fit to bear the brunt of war 
and, when the time came, to achieve their own 
independence. 

Fort Dummer, already alluded to as having been 
built in 1724, near what is now Brattleborough, 
was the first structure of any importance erected 
by Englishmen upon the soil of Vermont. 
Other smaller forts were afterward built near it. 
Fort Bridgman and Sartain's Fort stood due south 
near the west bank of the Connecticut. They 
were little more than mere block-houses and af- 
forded but slight protection to the settlers. Each 
was burned by the Indians and rebuilt in the 
second war of the century. 

In 1745 a fort was built on the Great Meadow 
in Putney. It proved too advanced an outpost, 
and was abandoned to its fate. The site was 
not again occupied till 1755. The Putney settle- 
ment went to ruin with the fort, but was renewed 
when the rebuilding of the stockade promised some 
degree of protection. One by one the pioneers 



40 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

crossed the Connecticut into the new country ; by 
twos and threes they passed northward along its 
westward bank from Massachusetts or pushed from 
Connecticut into the southwestern corner of the 
new region. The victory at Montreal stimulated 
immigration, and when peace was declared in 1763 
there were probably over two thousand people in 
Vermont. 

These were mainly sturdy frontiersmen with 
a taste for the venturesome ; soldiers who had 
fought against Montcalm; hunters and trappers who 
had penetrated the wilderness and seen its beauty 
and promise ; land speculators and surveyors who 
saw a chance for profit in the new country. Their 
settlements were as yet wholly confined to the 
southern extreniity of the State, when the boundary 
dispute which exercised such an important influ- 
ence upon its future began to be a burning 
question. 

The territory of Vermont was, at the time of the 
building of Fort Dummer, claimed by Massachu- 
setts ; that colony made grants of townships to 
associations of speculators who undertook, in con- 
sideration of their grants, to effect certain improve- 
ments within a specified time. The present town 
of Westminster was so granted, under the title of 
" No. I," to a number of Taunton people, and other 
towns to the west of it were laid out on the colo- 



THE QREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 4 1 

nial maps. But in 1740, in settlement of a dispute 
between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the 
king announced that the southern boundary of the 
latter province should run parallel with and three 
miles north of the Merrimac River to a point op- 
posite the Great Falls (Lowell), and thence upon a 
line due west to the " boundaries of His Majesty's 
other provinces." This decision put a stop to the 
Massachusetts settlements. Some of the grantees 
of towns were reimbursed by the colony for their 
expenditures. The others had hardly proceeded far 
enough in their enterprise to warrant the payment 
of quit money. 

New Hampshire for some years refused or neg- 
lected to man Fott Dummer, shrewdly and correctly 
reasoning that Massachusetts would continue the 
garrison as a protection to Deerfield and the neigh- 
boring towns, even though the fort was removed 
from the territory of the Bay Colony by the king's 
decision. But in 1749 Benning Wentworth, the 
royal governor of New Hampshire, who had been 
especially commissioned by the king to grant town- 
ships in the new territory to worthy persons, gave 
to William Williams and sixty-one others the town- 
ship of Bennington, named after himself and 
defined by its present limits. The king's instruc- 
tions to Wentworth and Massachusetts' appeals 
to New Hampshire to garrison Fort Dunimer 



42 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 



render it clear that the Hne of the latter colony was 
commonly understood in 1749 to run due west to 
the present southwestern corner of Vermont. This 
presumption was strengthened by the fact that the 
western boundaries of both Massachusetts and 
Connecticut had already been fixed at, speaking 
roughly, twenty miles east of the Hudson River. 




DR. ADAMS S STOOL OF REPENTENCE. 

This line, however, was not finally determined until 
a later time. 

In spite of this strong presumption, Governor 
Clinton of New York laid claim to the territory 
west of the Connecticut River and north of the 
Massachusetts line, on the strength of the royal 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 43 

grant to the Duke of York by Charles II. wherein 
the boundary of the province had been thus de- 
fined : " . . and all that island or islands com- 
monly called by the several names of Matowacks 
or Lono- Island . . and the narrow Hiehean- 
setts abutting upon the main land, between the two 
rivers there, called or known by the several names 
of Connecticut and Hudson's River together also 
with the said river called Hudson's, and all the 
lands from the west side of the Connecticut River 
to the east side of Delaware Bay " and the islands 
of " Martin's Vineyard and Nantuckes." These 
boundaries had already been abandoned on the 
east so far as Massachusetts and Connecticut were 
concerned ; the twenty-mile line had been estab- 
lished as already related; but New York still laid 
claim to the " New Hampshire Grants," as Ver- 
mont now began to be called. 

The original grant of Bennington was made by 
Governor Wentworth as a test, under an agree- 
ment with Governor Clinton of New York that 
while the boundary question was pending before 
the king, no more grants should be issued ; but 
before the end of the war in 1759 Governor Went- 
worth had issued fourteen grants ; by 1763 he had 
chartered one hundred and thirty-eight towns, all 
owing allegiance to New Hampshire. These 
extended in a reasonably compact body up the 



44 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

Connecticut, across the lower border of the State 
and up the twenty-mile line to Lake Champlain. 

In the following year the king decided that the 
western bank of the Connecticut River was " to 
be " the eastern boundary of the province of New 
York. With this decision the border dispute first 
became a matter for really serious contention. 
The original grants of townships had been made 
to speculators who did not intend to occupy their 
lands, but with the cessation of hostilities these 
non-resident owners had begun to find a market for 
their holdings; both New York and New Hampshire 
therefore naturally became much more desirous 
of establishing their authority over lands which 
had a considerable money value than they had been 
of possessing an uninhabited wilderness. 

The real bone of contention was, however, the 
profit accruing to the royal governors from every 
township grant. Benning VVentworth became a 
rich man from the two shares which he reserved 
for himself in each township, along with those set 
aside for the Church of England, for school pur- 
poses and for the first settled minister. In New 
York the fees and perquisites for a grant of one 
thousand acres were, in 1772, as follows: 

Governor ......... $31-25 

Secretary 10.00 

Clerk of Council ........ 10.00 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 45 

Auditor .......... 4.62 

Receiver General ........ 14-38 

Attorney General ........ 7.50 

Surveyor General . . . . . . . . 12.5c 

Larger tracts yielded fees in like proportion. A 
good many of the governors were not above the 
suspicion of taking for themselves the major part 
of the subordinates' fees. Nearly all shamelessly 
enriched themselves by land jobbery considering 
it presumably only a fair return for their conde- 
scension in consenting to live in the colonies. 

The greater part of the first settlers held title 
from the New Hampshire grantees. Naturally 
they favored the claim of that colony. They had 
paid for their little farms or had agreed to pay ; in 
the majority of instances they had made improve- 
ments and built houses, barns and mills. With 
quick ingenuity they caught at the words " to be " 
in the royal decision and reasoned that, while in 
future the government of the grants must be con- 
ceded to New York, it was evidently the king's 
intention that grants already made by New Hamp- 
shire and settled upon in good faith should be 
respected. 

But such special pleading was not to find favor 
in the courts at Albany. This the settlers in the 
grants soon discovered. The towns were redivided 
for the benefit of New York favorites at the colo- 



46 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

nial court, without regard to the settlers' rights. 
The colonists were invited to quiet the new claims 
upon their farms by repurchase. Failing in this 
the court at Albany threatened to issue writs of 
ejectment and send the sheriff to serve them. In 
many cases this was actually done. The settlers 
dispatched Samuel Robinson of Bennington, as 
their ao-ent to the kins;. Robinson obtained in 
1767, just before his death in London by the 
small-pox, an order forbidding the Governor of 
New York to make any more grants until the king 
had made known his final pleasure. To this order, 
however, not the slightest attention was paid. 

The formation of the organization known as the 
Green Mountain Boys was the direct reply of the 
Vermonters to the encroachments of New York. 
Of this organization, so famous in song and story, 
Ethan Allen was the acknowledged leader. He 
was born in Litchfield, Conn., and was in the prime 
of life when the boundary disturbances brought 
him into prominence. He was a man of ready wit 
and considerable ingenuity, gifted with a natural 
talent for leadership, great physical strength and 
endurance, fluent speech and a fine knowledge of 
men. He had a singularly handsome countenance, 
ruddy and bold, and an eye which flashed uncon- 
querable contempt for " Yorkers " and Tories, 
Brave to the pitch of rashness, he was more sue- 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 47 

cessful in daring exploits than in pitched battle. 
His second in command and influence was Seth 
Warner, a cool and reserved man, an accomplished 
horseman, more cautious than Allen, but equally 
brave, and a capable military commander. These 
two men were a power in themselves ; backed as 
they were by a number of vigorous and determined 
settlers, they kept for years the power of New York 
at bay. 

The court favorites for whose benefit the Ver- 
mont lands were regranted by New York rarely 
made their appearance there. Their only object 
w^as enrichment, and they sent surveyors to divide 
their purchases into plots for sale, without regard 
to the existing improvements. The men of chain 
and compass were driven off by the settlers. 

An appeal to the sheriff of Albany County 
brought little redress. The people of New York 
had no quarrel with the Vermonters ; they had no 
interest in the land speculations of their crown- 
appointed ofBcials and they certainly had no desire 
to form sheriff's posses to drive the Vermonters 
from their homes. The New York authorities tried 
with some success the policy of appointing resi- 
dents of the grants to lucrative peace offices, but 
the Green Mountain Boys with equal success sealed 
the New York commissions of these officers with 
the " beech seal " when they became troublesome. 



48 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

Thus one Benjamin Hough, a justice of the peace 
under a New York commission, was given two 
hundred blows of a beechen goad upon his bare 
back, driven out of the grants and warned not to 
return on pain of death, as a punishment for hav- 
ing petitioned the New York assembly to declare 
Allen and others outlaws. To this day every Ver- 
mont boy is supposed to know the precise use of 
a " blue beech goad." 

The " beech seal " was a questionable expedient ; 
others equally questionable were resorted to, if 
we may believe the solemn affidavits of the New 
Yorkers, forwarded to the legislature of that colony. 
John Munro, another " Yorker," complained that "a 
few nights agoe all my Pot and Pearlash with 20 
barrels of Pot and Pearl Ash was burned to ashes." 
John Headers, a Scotchman who settled on the tract 
of Colonel Reid, was examined by Hough, who 
testified that Readers had been " unhumanly beaten'd 
by the New Hampshire Rioters." Samuel Gar- 
denier, who bought land of James de Lancey of 
New York, was visited by neighbors " some of them 
disguised in Blankets like Indians, others with 
Handkerchiefs and others with Women's Caps on 
their Heads," who threatened him and, a fortnight 
later, came back a hundred strong and overturned 
his hay-stacks. 

It was at Durham that Allen and Remember 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 5 I 

Baker, another Green Mountain leader of impetu- 
ous temper, turned Benjamin Spencer out of bed. 
They knocked him on the head with a gun-barrel 
and committed other breaches of the peace, rather 
unnecessarily it would seem, since the " Yorkers " 
at Durham were not apparently occupying any 
land from which members of the other party had 
been driven. 

Occasionally there was a grim humor in the pun- 
ishments inflicted by the Green Mountain Boys. 
There stood in the town of Bennington the Green 
Mountain House, a famed resort of those days, 
whose sign was a stuffed catamount grinning de- 
fiance toward New York. For too freely criticis- 
ing the acts of the Bennington partisans of New 
Hampshire, one Dr. Samuel Adams was hoisted 
up by the side of the cat and made to keep it com- 
pany through several unpleasant hours. 

Of course the government of New York was not 
inactive during these developments. Allen, Baker 
and others were denounced as felons, and a reward 
of twenty pounds offered for their apprehension. 
It is related of Allen that on hearino; of this action 
he made a wager that he would ride to Albany, 
drink a bowl of punch and return unharmed. This 
he did in the middle of the day with n-iuch bravado 
and ostentation, though the sheriff was in town and 
knew of his presence. Soon after this the " Yorker," 



52 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

John Munro, with a party of adherents desirous of 
turning an honest penny, surprised Captain Remem- 
ber Baker in his bed and took him prisoner. They 
dealt very roughly with him and even with his wife 
and fourteen-year-old son. All three were severely 
wounded in the melee Captain Baker was thrown 
into a sleigh and driven with all speed toward 
Albany, but rescued by his neighbors. Not long- 
after this encounter Munro attempted the capture 
of Seth Warner. But that intrepid partisan, who 
was mounted at the time, dealt Munro a blow with 
his sword and escaped. Then appeared on the 
scene the majesty of the law itself in the person of 
Sheriff Ten Eyck of Albany. With a strong body 
of troops he marched east from Troy prepared to 
enforce the New York titles. But the royal gov- 
ernor of New York came very near to faring no 
better than did a certain " King of France " who 
marched up and then down again. For he was 
n^et by a resolute band of Green Mountain Boys, 
fully prepared to battle for their homes. Ten 
Eyck saw that they were determined and deemed 
it wisest not to fight. So a temporary truce was 
patched up. 

This, however, was soon broken under a misun- 
derstanding. Allen, having taken prisoner a 
surveyor named Cockburn, angrily broke his in- 
struments and warned him under penalty of death 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 53 

not to return to Vermont while the negotiations 
were pending. At about the same time a number 
of Scotch tenants of one Colonel Reid were placed 
by him upon land which he had taken from the 
granters. The "Boys" resented this invasion of 
their " rights " and when the colonel had left his 
lands, pounced down upon the " invaders " ; the 
Scotchmen were again driven off and a block-house 
was built upon the Winooski to protect the settlers. 
To these occurrences the Durham campaign was 
a fitting companion. The settlers in Durham had 
bought their land of one Lydius of Albany. The 
accounts describe him as an Indian trader and the 
heir of that Dominie Lydius, to whom Dominie 
Dellius of Albany assigned his famous claim to a 
good portion of the State of Vermont, granted in 
1696 for the " Annuall Rente of one Raccoon 
Skinn." This claim was two years later declared 
excessive and invalid by the New York Legislature. 
It became a fruitful source since of contentions. 
The best authorities agree that Lydius got his land 
on the strength of a treaty made with the Indians 
and confirmed by Governor Shirley of Massachu- 
setts. Whatever the merits of Colonel Lydius' 
original title, the residents of Durham were desir- 
ous of making their claims to rightful possession 
absolutely secure. They therefore applied to New 
York for a patent. This was issued in 1772 and 



54 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

was in direct disobedience of the king's orders in 
council forbidding the Governor of New York to 
issue furtlier grants until authorized to do so. 

The application for a New York patent enraged 
the Green Mountain Boys. They knew that the 
people of Durham naturally sided with the New 
Yorkers to whom they were bound by a common 
interest and they resolved by the picturesque if 
lawless methods of their organization, to convert 
the Durham folk to the true faith in the validity of 
New Hampshire's title. 

With this intent Allen and Baker led the " Ben- 
nington Mob " of one hundred men upon Durham. 
Their excesses were made, in 1774, the subject of 
complaint to the legislature by the Durham people. 
It was because of this and other troubles that the 
legislature of that year named Allen, Baker, War- 
ner, Robert Cochrane, Peleg Sunderland, Silvanus 
Brown, James Brackinridge and John Smith as 
the leaders of the mob and empowered the gov- 
ernor and council to issue a proclamation ordering 
them to surrender within seventy days. The gov- 
ernor accordingly offered one hundred pounds re- 
ward each for the arrest of Allen and Baker and 
fifty pounds each for the others named. At the 
same time the legislature, b)- a close vote, passed an 
act decreeing the outlaws "to be adjudged, deemed, 
and (if indicted for a capital offence hereafter to 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 55 

be committed, to be convicted and attainted of 
felony." It further decreed that the accused should 
"suffer death as incases of persons convicted and 
attainted of felony by verdict and judgment with- 
out benefit of clergy," if they did not give them- 
selves up within seventy days. It is said that Allen, 
upon hearing of this, laughed loud and long and 
asked, " How will the fools manage to hang a 
Green Mountain Boy before they catch him } " 

The question was a pertinent one. The com- 
mittees of the several townships promptly met and 
resolved to defend, against the ofBcers of the law, 
those " who, for their merit in the great and gen- 
eral cause, had been falsely denominated rioters," 
adding that in all civil processes and legitimate 
criminal ones they were ready to aid the author- 
ities to enforce the law. The outlaws themselves 
issued a proclamation threatening death to any one 
who should be temipted by the reward to try to de- 
liver them up for punishment. Matters were 
clearly approaching a crisis beneath the shadow 
of the vert monts. 

But by this time greater events were impending. 
Resistance to tyranny was moving all the colonies ; 
acts as well as desires were hastening forward the 
war which was to free the provinces. Though re- 
mote from the centres of organized opposition 
to the Stamp Act and to military despotism, the 



56 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

Green Mountain Boys were fully aware of the diffi- 
culties which were arising between the people and 
the king. So it came to pass that the cause of 
the grantees, which had all along been the popu- 
lar one, became more and more identified with 
that of the colonists, while the cause of the 
New York authorities became the cause of the 
king's, whose servants they were. An event was 
now to occur which emphasized still more this 
distinction. 

The next session of the New York court for the 
county which then embraced Southern Vermont, 
was to be held at Westminster, for so the old town- 
ship of "No. I " had been rechristened by New 
Hampshire. Criminal proceedings against the 
leaders of the riotous Green Mountain Boys were 
to be expected, as well as other acts inimical to the 
interests of the settlers. These therefore resolved 
that the court should not sit. The Whigs, as the 
popular party had now come to be known, occu- 
pied the court house with one hundred men. The 
night before the court was to be opened the 
sheriff's posse demanded admittance. It was re- 
fused. On the assurance that no attempt would be 
made to enter the building before morning, the 
larger part of the people's guard retired, leaving 
only a small force armed with clubs. Scarcely 
had they withdrawn when the sheriff returned 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 



57 



with his posse. Being again refused admission 
he gave the order for the firing of a volley. 

The result was disastrous to the people's party 
for when the smoke cleared away it was found that 
William French and Daniel Houghton were fatally 
wounded. Others also were wounded though less 
seriously. About twenty of them were imprisoned. 
Among these was the dying French. 

The court was opened in the morning and ad- 
journed to three o'clock. Before that hour the 
judges, the sheriff and his posse all were fleeing 
from the wrath of the people. Pursued by the 
enraged crowd, now numbering five hundred armed 
men, they were brought in one by one and impris- 
oned in the very room 
where they had so re- 
cently confined the de- 
fenders of the court 
house. A rude court 
was improvised and 
two of the judges, the 
clerk, the sheriff and 
his deputy and four 
others were held for 
trial for the murder of 
William French ; the 
others were allowed to 
depart on bail to appear 




THE JUDGES JUDGED. 



58 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

when wanted. The people's prisoners were soon 
after released, ostensibly for trial, by Judge Hors- 
manden at Albany. To this, however, they were 
never brought. But it was long before court was 
held again at Westminster. 

The following epitaph was placed above William 
French's grave : 

IN MEiMORY OF WILLIAM FRENCH 

SON OF MR. NATHANIEL FRENCH WHO 

WAS SHOT AT WESTMINSTER MARCH YE 13TH 

1775 BY THE HANDS OF CRUEL MINISTEREAL 

TOOLS OF GEORGE YE 3D IN THE COURTHOUSE AT 

All a'CLOCK AT NIGHT IN THE 22D YEAR OF 

HIS AGE. 

Here William Freiuii his Body lies 

For Murder his Blood for Vengeanee eries 

Ki?ig Georg the third his Tory cre2o 

tha with a bcnvl his head Shot threiv 

For Liberty and his Country s Good 

he Lost his Life his Dearest blood. 

What the Boston martyrs were to Massachusetts 
William French w^as to the Green Mountain Bo3^s. 
His death was indeed a sacrifice "for Liberty and 
his Country's Good." It was never forgotten in 
the comino' struoQ-le aoainst the Crown. 

The population of Vermont had increased very 
rapidly during these troubles. At the outbreak of 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 59 

the Revolution their number must have been about 
twenty thousand. One main reason for this rapid 
increase undoubtedly was that many of the original 
New Hampshire grantees, fearing that their titles 
would become valueless, hastened to dispose of 
their lands at attractively low figures. Indeed it 
is stated that some of them sold farms under the 
express stipulation that the settlers should not be 
required to pay anything if the title should prove 
worthless. This may have been the case in a few 
instances — an affidavit referring to the matter was 
submitted to the New York Legislature at the time 
— but certainly was not in many. It is probable 
that a sincere belief in the sfrantees' rio-hts induced 
many to settle in Vermont just as, many years later, 
the slavery-hating men of the North and East 
poured into " Bleeding Kansas " to save her for 
freedom. 

Nor was the increase of population wholly de- 
pendent upon immigration. Sons and daughters 
were in those days numerous in every well-regulated 
Vermont household. Ethan Allen was one of 
seven strong brothers. In the township of Guilford 
in 1772 there were eighty-two families with three 
hundred and ninety-three children, an average of 
nearly five to a household. Three families had 
eleven children each and six out of the eighty-two 
had nine each. These sturdy settlers were men of 



6o THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

character and determination. They had little, but 
were much. They built huts in the woods by 
themselves, to which, when the winter snow came, 
they dragged on sledges their wives, children and 
household effects. Sometimes they took up their 
residence in summer and camped out while the log 
hut was building. Having so toiled for their humble 
homes they were ready to defend them against 
what they considered illegal confiscation and 
against the aggressions of the king. They were 
made of stern stuff, these pioneers ; they have left 
their mark and influence upon their time and ours. 
Historians of the present day are generally 
agreed that the cause of the New Hampshire 
Grants against New York was a just one and that its 
success was a triumph of right. So long as the 
territory remained uninhabited, it was hard to say 
which colony of the three which first claimed 
Vermont had the best right to possession, if, indeed, 
either of the three could be said to possess any 
risht at all to lands which no one used or occu- 
pied save the Indians, their ancient owners. The 
vast royal grants of that day were issued to and 
by men ignorant of the country; they were based 
upon maps ludicrously inaccurate, and were very 
vague and contradictory in their phrasing. In- 
stances of such boundary disputes were very fre- 
quent. Massachusetts claimed that its western 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 6 1 

boundary was the Mississippi ; sometimes indeed 
the modest proprietors of the Bay Colony asserted 
that their western possessions were stopped only by 
the Pacific Ocean. New York's charter, as we 
have seen, covered New Jersey on the west and 
half of the land already granted to the Connecticut 
colony on the east. These carelessly drawn grants 
were everywhere a fruitful source of trouble. 

But if there was little to choose between the rival 
claims of grasping royal governors, the question 
became a wholly different one when for the first 
time an actual body of settlers occupied the land, 
building houses, mills and churches upon it, clear- 
ing away the forest and cultivating the soil. These 
men were the first to establish any rights in the 
country which most moralists would concede. 
Filching splendid empires from the Indians by royal 
charter without payment did not establish a moral 
right to the new country, but as between the rival 
claimants of Vermont the choice certainly lay with 
New Hampshire under whose auspices the first 
work was done to make it habitable and of value. 

Certainly, in what may be considered the strict 
legal sense, the settlers had the best of the ar- 
gument. The subject of right is one of much com- 
plexity but in the early stages of the quarrel prece- 
dent and the common understanding of the matter 
were upon the side of the settlers, while the fact 



62 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS. 

that Governor Wentworth was expressly commis- 
sioned to grant townships across tlie Connecticut 
strengthened their claim. It is no less true that 
every township grant issued by New York after 1 767 
was a direct violation of the king's orders in council. 
But New York clung resolutely to the grants, 
even throuMi the distractions of the Revolution. 
The Green Mountain Boys dealt and received many 
hard blows in defence of their asserted rights and 
gained for themselves undying fame as picturesque 
but patriotic partisans. But the Revolution came 
only as an entractc. After the triumph of the 
colonies the old dispute again arose and the final 
settlement of the difficulty was not reached for more 
than forty years after the granting of Bennington 
township, and sixteen years after the outbreak of 
the great war for national liberty. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 



Cfannorx capturea aC 
J^enr\ir\crtoi\. 





I HE story of the capt- 
ure of Fort Ticonde- 
roga by the intrepid 
Ethan Allen and his 
eighty-three men is 
one of the most pop- 
ular of American tra- 
ditions. It will never 
be forgotten by young 
and old Americans. 
It does not detract from the glory of that exploit 
that the project seems to have occurred almost 
simultaneously to the patriot leaders in three dif- 
ferent and widely separated places. A victory so 
bold in execution need not claim entire originality 
of conception to insure itself a place in history. 

As a matter of fact, the credit of first proposing 
the expedition seems to belong to Connecticut. 
So early as April, 1775,* that colony appropriated 

* It IS claimed that at an even earlier date, on February the twsnty-first, 1775, Colonel 
John Brown, of Pittst^eld in the Massachusetts colony, wrote to Joseph Warren at Boston 
suggesting the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, but the move made by Connecticut was the 
earliest decisive action — Ed. 

63 



64 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

three hundred pounds for the expenses of an ex- 
pedition against Ticonderoga, in the organization 
of which Benedict Arnold, Silas Deane and Samuel 
H. Parsons were leading spirits. A few troops 
were raised and sent North. These were rein- 
forced by others from Western Massachusetts. 
" To the North ! " was the rallying cry, and the 
comniand of the whole expedition was given to 
Colonel Easton, who joined the troops at Pittsfield. 
On the third of May the little command reached 
Bennington ; here the Green Mountain Boys had 
already gathered in considerable numbers. It was 
found that Ethan Allen had raised the larger num- 
ber of the troops. He was therefore made com- 
mander of the united party. Seth Warner had 
joined the expedition with a personal following 
that was less than Easton's, and he yielded to that 
officer the second place. There was no jealousy 
or contention among these three patriotic soldiers, 
but bad blood was soon caused by the arrival of 
Arnold from Massachusetts. He displayed a com- 
mission from the Committee of Safety of that State 
by virtue of which he claimed the command. He 
had no troops, but his commission authorized him 
to raise them, and the easy method of taking those 
already collected by Allen, Easton and Warner 
was c{uite to his taste. He found in Allen, how- 
ever, a spirit as imperious as himself. The chief 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 65 

of the Green Mountain Boys would yield what he 
esteemed his rights to no man and Arnold was 
obliged to content himself with accompanying 
the expedition with a colonel's rank, but without 
command. 

These details arranged, the expedition marched 
to the shore of the lake, as Allen and his advisers 
had planned. Arriving there on the ninth of May 
a hasty search was made for boats to carry them 
across. Only enough were secured to transport 
Allen, Arnold and eighty-three others ; when these 
had been safely ferried over to a point well below 
the fort it was so near morning that it was evident 
that the darkness would not last until Warner and 
the remainder of the force could be brought across. 
Rather than abandon the attempt Allen soon de- 
cided to push on with his present force, and making 
an address of memorable brevity he asked every 
man who was willing to follow him into the fort 
to poise his firelock. Every weapon was raised 
in an instant and the stealthy march began. 

A sleepy sentinel at the gate snapped his fusee 
at Allen ; the piece missed fire. Another made a 
cut at a Continental officer with his bayonet ; he 
was quickly disarmed. No noise disturbed the 
sleeping garrison ; the interior of the fort was 
gained. Then amid the ringing echoes of his 
men's victorious huzzas Allen appeared at Captain 



66 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

Delaplaice's door demanding the surrender of 
the fort. 

" By what authority ? " asked the commander, 
rubbing his eyes and still holding in his hand his 
undonned uniform. 

" In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Con- 
tinental Congress," replied Allen. 

There could be no parleying; Allen stood with 
drawn sword before the commandant's door. Dela- 
plaice yielded to the inevitable and Ticonderoga 
fell. The fortress was surrendered with fifty pris- 
oners and considerable stores of war material. Its 
possession had cost Great Britain dearly; not a 
life was lost by the Green Mountain Boys in its 
capture. 

The fortress of Crown Point yielded as readily to 
Captain Seth Warner. Arnold, who had marched 
by Allen's side into Ticonderoga, was afterward 
placed in command of a schooner captured at 
Skenesborough by a detachment of Vermonters. 
With her he took a British corvette. From end 
to end Lake Champlain was under rebel control 
and the king's power was broken. 

The news of these triumphs of the colonial cause 
was almost the first that greeted Congress upon its 
assembling, for that body was not in session at the 
time of Allen's famous appeal. Nor, when it did 
hear the news, did its members exhibit overmuch 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 



67 



joy or readiness to profit by the success of the 
Green Mountain Boys. After all their trouble, 
danger and enterprise, Congress passed a resolu- 
tion half apologizing for the seizure and directing 
the removal of the captured war material to a post 
at the southern end of Lake George. This order 
caused great anger in the grants. It was finally 




PARSON Allen's appeal. 

reversed and a strong force was sent from Con- 
necticut to whose custody Allen gracefully yielded 
the forts. 

The capture of Ticonderoga left the road appar- 
ently clear for the invasion of Canada. An expe- 
dition organized for that object was placed under 



68 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

the command of General Schuyler. In his illness 
however the leadership devolved upon General 
Montgomery. The enterprise was reasonably suc- 
cessful at first and Montreal was taken. A reo-i- 
ment of Green Mountain Boys under Seth Warner 
bore themselves with conspicuous valor in this cam- 
paign. Ethan Allen was somewhat chagrined at 
the choice made by the Vermont soldiers, of 
Warner for commanding officer instead of himself. 
But he accompanied the regiment as an unattached 
officer and was sent among the Canadians with the 
mission of assuring: them that the invasion was 
not designed to harm them or abridge their lib- 
erties, but rather to bring them benefits. 

The mission was one foredoomed to failure. The 
population of Canada was mainly French ; the peo- 
ple neither sympathized with nor understood the 
aspirations of the Colonists, and their own special 
o-rievances ao;ainst Great Britain had been removed 
some years before by the recognition of the Cath- 
olic religion in Canada. This act won for King- 
George the title of the " Pope of Canada" among 
the English colonies, and was no slight factor in 
determining their revolt. 

Allen f^iathered a few recruits and with them 
made a mad attack upon Montreal before that city 
had been invested by Montgomery. Naturally he 
found the task of takinc: a citv a vastlv different 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 69 

matter from the surprise of Ticonderoga. His 
force was speedily dispersed and he himself was 
taken prisoner. The town soon after yielded to a 
military assault by a sufficient force under Mont- 
gomery, but its capture was the last gleam of sun- 
shine upon the campaign. The fall of Montgomery 
before Quebec checked the effort to take Canada, 
and the Continental Army had some difficulty in 
regaining a place of safety, the Vermont regiment 
of Seth Warner doing good service in covering the 
retreat. 

Ethan Allen by his own act had fully justified 
the preference shown for Warner as a military 
leader. His rashness deprived the colonies of his 
really valuable services and inflicted upon himself 
great discomfort. For to be a prisoner of war was 
in those days no slight matter. The doughty 
leader of the Green Mountain Boys was confined 
first in Ireland, next in England, then at Halifax, 
then on Long Island and finally in New York. 
Here he was one of the charges of the infamous 
provost Cunningham, who crowded his prisoners 
so that they had to turn in bed by platoons and 
at the word of command. His exchange for a 
British colonel was finally effected but by that time 
the former stalwart fio-ure was much broken in 

O 

health by confinement and suffering. 

Many stories are told of Allen's imprisonment; 



JO THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

how he once saved a platoon of prisoners from 
being shot by stepping between them and the firing 
squadron ; how he boasted that never mother bore 
seven such sons as he and his brothers, and was 
wittily reminded by a British officer of Mary Mag- 
dalene who also was delivered of seven devils; how 
he barely escaped having his eyes gouged out in a 
fight with a fellow prisoner at New York. It is prob- 
able that some of these tales have grown by telling. 
Certainly not all that are told of him can be true. 
He lived out his life in public sight scarcely a cent- 
urv ago, yet he is already a legendary character. 
But as the impression conveyed by the tales of 
his romantic career is reasonably true alike to his 
known character and to the times in which he lived, 
it is to be hoped that the youth of Vermont may 
lono' love to listen to them. 

It may not be literally true that he once had a 
sound tooth pulled in order to reassure a lady 
shrinking from the forceps that it did not hurt at 
all — but he was capable of such a useless show 
of fortitude. His drinking bout with Rivington, 
the Tory printer of New York, probably never 
occurred precisely as the latter, poking sly fun at 
the tall gaunt Vermonter in his tattered regimen- 
tals, tells the tale — yet Allen was certainly not the 
man t(^ remember over a bowl of punch that he 
had come to the office of liis vis-a-vis to kill him. 



' THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 7 1 

There may be some mistake somewhere in the 
account of his escaping a sergeant and file of Brit- 
ish soldiers by getting them all drunk, pouring 
meanwhile his own brimming goblets into the 
loose neck of his shirt — but there are known 
instances of equal coolness on his part. There is 
no doubt that he was in favor of confiscating: the 
property of his Tory brother Levi and declaring 
him a traitor, and but little doubt that he refused 
to fight a duel with Levi when challenged, saying 
that he would not fight with a traitor. He was not 
a military genius, but he was a remarkable man. 

Four weeks before the battle of Lexington the 
Vermont Committee of Safety had offered to send 
a strong force of troops to Boston, but had been 
advised on no account to do so, but rather to sow 
and plant, not alone for their own necessities, but 
as much as possible. The wisdom of this advice 
became apparent in the year which followed the 
failure of the invasion of Canada. 

The British ministry well knew the importance 
of the possession of Lake Champlain, and the Brit- 
ish general Carleton in 1776 pressed down the 
lake with a powerful force. Every son of Ver- 
mont was needed at home to aid in repelling the 
most dangerous blow that had yet been aimed at 
the colonies. 

General Gates was placed in command at Crown 



72 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

Point and busied himself in strengthening the works 
there and at Ticonderoga and in building a rude 
fleet. The latter was overpowered in the first 
eneasfement and Crown Point was taken, the de- 
fenders setting fire to the fleet and spiking their 
guns before retreating. It was now October, and 
Carleton, leaving a strong garrison at Crown Point, 
retired to winter quarters in Canada. 

In the spring of 1777 General Burgoyne, in com- 
mand of a strong: force of British and Hessian 
troops, Tories and Indians, took up, where Carleton 
had dropped it, the task of opening a road from 
Lake Champlain to the sea. The newly-formed 
convention of Vermont, of which more hereafter, 
sent Warner with all the troops he could raise to 
assist General St. Clair at Ticonderoga. It was 
useless to attempt to hold that fort, however, against 
Burgoyne's force. St. Clair retreated across the 
lake closely pursued by the enemy, and marched 
through Vermont to Fort Edward where General 
Schuyler was stationed with the Colonial Army. 

A strono: detachment of Burs^ovne's armv under 
Generals Frazer and Riedesel came up with the 
American rear Q-uard under Warner and Francis at 
Hubbard ton. It was on this occasion that Warner 
Qfave to his men that celebrated order, not found in 
any work on tactics, to take to the woods and meet 
him at Manchester. They had been heavily over- 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. J 2> 

matched in the brief engagement and Colonel 
Francis had fallen. The Green Mountain resriment 
did reassemble after that bloody and unequal en- 
counter and when the time came they did valiant 
work. 

The main army of Burgoyne had reached the 
upper Hudson, driving all opposition before it. 
The invaders only paused long enough to rest a 
few days while a strong force was sent out toward 
Bennington on a foraging expedition. The main 
object of the foray was to secure horses. Bur- 
goyne gave the German general Baum who was in 
command explicit directions to bring in " thirteen 
hundred horses tied in strings of ten horses each 
so that one man can lead ten horses." But the 
detachment brought back no horses. Near Ben- 
nington it met an unexpected obstacle in the shape 
of a regiment of New Hampshire militia com- 
manded by John Stark, a veteran Indian fighter. 
Baum paused to throw up intrenchments and on 
the third day was attacked by Stark's command. 

It was on the morning of that historic sixteenth 
of August, 1777, that Stark made his famous 
speech : " Boys, there are your enemies, the red- 
coats and Tories. We must conquer them or to- 
night Molly Stark is a widow." It was then too 
that the Rev. Mr. Allen, the intrepid fighting par- 
son of Pittsfield, distinguished himself. Early in 



74 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

the morning this worthy man, who had been im- 
portuning Warner to hurry up the action, is said 
to have advanced toward Baum's works and called 
on the Hessians to surrender to avoid bloodshed. 
They understood neither his words nor his action, 
and their only answer was a volley. " Now give 
me a gun," said the man of God. 

With such spirit on the colonial side the action 
could have but one result. Baum's Indians fled, 
his regulars were dispersed, many were killed and 
a large number of prisoners taken. On the heels 
of the engagement came Colonel Breyman with a 
reinforcement from Burgoyne which had been sent 
for by Baum. 

Seth Warner had fought at Stark's side all day, 
but the bulk of his regiment arrived just in time to 
meet this second attack. The battle was quite as 
sharp as the first, and was ended by Breyman's re- 
treat at dusk. The spoils of that well-fought field 
were seven hundred prisoners, four cannon and 
many muskets. The British loss was comparatively 
heavy; of the colonial troops thirty were killed 
and forty wounded. 

The victory at Bennington was won by pluck and 
determination pitted against military skill and ex- 
perience. Baum was a good commander, but his 
troops probably fought tamely and were easily made 
prisoners. They had no more than the mercenary's 



^,^ 4 -"^ll^^ . 













THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. J^J 

interest in the result of the war and had little taste 
for heavy blows. It is related of a colonial officer, 
Charles Johnston, that, coming in the thick of the 
fight upon a Hessian sergeant and a file of soldiers, 
he knocked the sergeant's sword out of his hand 
with a stick, picked it up and compelled the officer 
at its point to surrender his command. 

The prisoners taken at Bennington were sent for 
safe keeping to Massachusetts. All along the way 
the people flocked to see them, sometimes venting 
their satisfaction in satirical remarks. One orood 
dame is said to have remarked on seeinof Lord 
Napier ragged and unkempt, among the prisoners, 
that she cared to see no other lord but the Lord 
Jehovah. 

The good people could hardly be blamed for ex- 
ulting somewhat over the prisoners. The victory 
at Bennington, won by the raw militia of Vermont 
and New Hampshire, was the turning point in a 
war where hitherto all had gone very ill indeed. 
Burgoyne's army, weakened by the loss of a thou- 
sand men, hampered by lack of horses and provisions 
and greatly delayed by the defeat, was forced just 
two months later to surrender. On the plains of 
Saratoga five thousand seven hundred men and 
much valuable war material fell into the hands of 
General Gates, who had succeeded Schuyler in 
command on the Hudson. The British attempt to 



yS THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

cut the colonies in halves had failed. Had it suc- 
ceeded the war might have had a far different 
termination. 

Three days after the defeat of Baum, Congress 
passed a vote of censure upon the Legislature of 
New Hampshire for so wording General Stark's 
instructions as to permit that officer to act on his 
own responsibility in the campaign. Stark himself 
was included by implication in this censure, since 
he had expressly refused to join the main body of 
Schuyler which was facing Burgoyne on the Piud- 
son. The great value to the colonial cause of 
Stark's victory has usually been considered a com- 
plete justification for his refusal ; it was neverthe- 
less hardly excusable on military grounds. As a 
matter of fact, Stark's withdrawal from the army of 
Schuyler was due only in part to a desire to pro- 
tect New Hampshire and Vermont from the Brit- 
ish; it was due quite as much to that spirit of 
State jealousy which during the Revolution so 
often crippled the colonial cause. The troops of 
New Hampshire and Vermont were capable of a 
heroic defense when their own territory was threat- 
ened, but they were quite willing to let New- 
Yorkers bear the brunt of the attack upon that 
colony. In this they were neither better nor worse 
than the other colonies, none of which at any time 
fully realized that the concern of one was the care 



THE FIGHT TOR TIBER TV. jg 

of all. It was scarcely to be wondered at that 
they should have felt no ardent desire to save New 
York from the impending blow, considering all 
that they had suffered from that arrogant colony, 
yet disobedience of the orders of a military supe- 
rior in a grave crisis is not justified by pique. As 
it happened, the forces of Stark and Warner were 
enabled to render a signal service to the cause, but 
it might easily have happened otherwise. Had 
they remained with Schuyler, had Baum carried 
off his horses from Bennington unopposed, Bur- 
goyne's defeat would probably still have been 
accomplished. There was, then, some justification 
for this censure by the Congress, but to do that 
body justice, it had not heard of the great victory 
when the vote was taken. When the olorious 
news came. Stark was complimented upon his vic- 
tory and given a major-general's commission. 

There was not much gold lace in those days 
about a general, at least a general of Stark's type. 
Stark lived in a log cabin and Baum's war maps 
were all the curtains which that structure pos- 
sessed for some time. The cannon captured from 
the Hessians have long delighted patriotic eyes 
at the Montpelier State House, and upon the site 
of the battle the grateful descendants of the men 
who there defended the liberties of the people are 
erecting a stately monument. 



80 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

The fall of Burgoyne relieved the colonies from 
apprehension from the north, but it plunged Ver- 
mont into new dangers. The people of that much 
bado-ered section now wished to establish their in- 
dependence of both New Hampshire and New 
York. Jurisdiction over them was however still 
claimed by both States, and in the latter they had 
a powerful enemy in the colonial councils. 

The Vermont settlers were left without any pro- 
tection from the north, and from that quarter they 
knew only too well what they had to fear. The 
fate of Jane McCrea told what manner of foes they 
were who were likely to assail them. That young 
lady had a Tory lover in the army of Frazer and 
Riedesel, and to meet him she remained behind 
when her neighbors fled out of reach of the Indian 
allies of the invaders. For her trust she was killed 
and scalped, and her broken-hearted lover, resign- 
ing his commission, purchased her scalp and retired 
to Canada where for many years he lived a lonely 
and gloomy life. It was to elude such a fate as 
this that the families of the widow Storey and her 
neighbor Mr. Stevens lived for a lono- time in a 
cave under the bank of Otter Creek, approaching 
it only by canoe to avoid being tracked. It was 
to fend off such savage warfare and protect the 
people of Vermont from horrid butcheries that the 
newly formed Committee of Safety resorted to an 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 8 1 

expedient which has caused the historians of the 
State some unnecessary blushes and has furnished 
the theme for inexcusable attacks upon the memory 
of its foremost men. 

It is one of the favorite tales of the Ethan Allen 
mythology that on one occasion he received a letter 
from a British general offering him the title of 
Duke of Vermont and vast landed possessions 
therein if he would espouse the Royal cause. It is 
further stated that he responded virtuously that his 
tempter reminded him of a certain personage who 
offered our Saviour the kingdoms of the earth, well 
knowing that he didn't own a foot of it. Alas for 
the legend ! It was to Ethan Allen, now back in 
Vermont and wearing the title of Commander-in- 
Chief of the Militia, that the British Colonel 
Beverly Robinson wrote in 1780 making distinct 
overtures for an alliance of Vermont with Great 
Britain. Allen's first impulse would undoubtedly 
have been to write an indignantly rhetorical re- 
fusal, but Governor Chittenden and Ira Allen, of 
the Committee of Safety, advised other measures. 
In a word, they resolved to play off the British in- 
vaders, who could crush them with their military 
power, against the Congress, which persistently 
refused to admit them on an equality with the other 
colonies to the Congressional councils and privi- 
leges. By affecting to coquet with Great Britain 



82 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

they would awaken the jealousy and alarm of the 
colonies and, at the same time, save their outposts 
from destruction. 

This was undoubtedly the intention, yet it speedily 
became apparent that one half of the plan must be 
relinquished. To produce any effect on Congress 
some publicity about the negotiations would be 
necessary ; but this would have meant the utter 
ruin of the committee before the people. They 
could and did, however, succeed in accomplishing 
with much success the second object of the parley. 
During the latter years of the war Vermont suf- 
fered very little from incursions of the enemy. 

It was not probable that Congress was greatly 
affected, after the first, by these negotiations. Bev- 
erly Robinson's letter was indeed somewhat tardily 
transmitted to that body, but there was obviously 
little to fear from an intrigue so repugnant to the 
people of Vermont that a bare suspicion of it 
almost cost the leaders their places. 

The temper of the people on this point was pretty 
conclusively tried in the military operations of the 
year 1780. In the two previous years a few forts 
had been erected to guard the northern frontier. 
This barrier did not prevent an incursion of 
Indians, who on the sixteenth of October fell upon 
Royalton with crushing weight. The town was 
burned, two persons killed and twenty-six prisoners 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. ^l 



taken to Canada. At the same time Major Carle- 
ton led a force up Lake Champlain which created 
a panic on both its shores. It avoided Vermont, un- 
doubtedly by design, but penetrated into New York 
as far as Ballston, which was burned. 

Carleton had received instructions to favor the 
Vermonters in every way, and accordingly he now 
concluded arrangement for a cessation of hostilities 
pending an exchange of prisoners. By Allen's 
insistance the New York frontiers were included 
in this arrangement, though Carleton was at first 
very much averse to this. The people of New 
York, not understanding the situation, became 
very nervous when, after the agreement, Allen 
withdrew the militia of Vermont. They ques- 
tioned and grumbled and they began to mutter 
that the action was very mysterious. 

General Schuyler wrote to Washington for ad- 
ditional forces for the defense of New York. These 
however were not needed, as the enemy soon re- 
tired from the lake to Canada, but the retreat set 
the tongues wagging faster than ever. The dis- 
satisfaction extended to Vermont where remon- 
strances were presented to the Assembly. The 
brief record of that body cites the presentation of 
the complaints, but fails to specify their nature. 
Four days later they w^ere withdrawn while curiously 
enough, a vote of thanks was passed to Allen. 



84 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

It was in the preceding March that Allen had 
received the letter from Colonel Robinson, but it 
was not transmitted to Congress until March 9, 
1 78 1. In his letter to Congress Allen assured that 
body of his fidelity to the cause of the colonies. 
But he said that he was " fully grounded in the 
opinion that Vermont has an indubitable right to 
ao-ree on terms of cessation of hostilities with Great 
Britain, provided the United States persist in reject- 
ing her application for a union with them." 

It was two months later than this that Colonel 
Ira Allen crossed the Canada line and spent a num- 
ber of days in negotiations with the British general 
Haldiniand. In these and subsequent conferences 
Britain assumed the role of suitor, Vermont that 
of the sued. The British officers wanted Vermont 
at once proclaimed a crown province and two red- 
coated regiments raised there ; Allen wanted noth- 
ing but dela)^ and immunit}^ from assault mean- 
while. He had his way, for the British seem 
never to have doubted that Vermont's dissatisfac- 
tion with Congress would in the end drive the peo- 
ple into a British union. 

Allen left the British in that belief and received 
the written commendation of eight equally patriotic 
citizens for having so conducted the difficult nego- 
tiations as to deceive the enemy. The men who 
signed this paper were Jonas Fay, Samuel Safford, 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 



85 



Samuel Robinson the younger, Joseph Fay, Thomas 
Chittenden, Moses Robinson, Timothy Brownson 
and John Fassett. These were all men of repute 
in the State and patriots to the core. They sanc- 
tioned the continuance of a policy of deceit to 
save the people from utter destruction at the hands 
of an enemy of overpowering military superiority. 
Yet any one of them would have cut off his right 
hand sooner than betray the popular cause to the 
king. 

Nor was there any doubt which was the popular 
cause. It had been sufficiently indicated by the 
murmurs in the previous year, and an untoward 
incident was now to cause yet louder complaints. 
While the secret ne- 
gotiations were in pro- 
gress some show of 
military activity had to 
be kept up to keep 
the people ignorant of 
their real nature. In 
October, 1781, General 
St. Leger ascended 
Lake Champlain with 
a British force as far 
as Ticonderoga, and 
General Enos with the 
Vermont troops allen and runnals. 




86 THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 

watched him from across the lake. Both o-en- 
erals understood that their campaign was not 
meant to be a bloody one, but the scouts took it 
in earnest, and in an " affair of the outposts," Ser- 
geant Tupper of Vermont was killed. General St. 
Leger buried Tupper and sent his clothing with a 
message of apology and condolence to General 
Enos. He was sorry, he said. But why ? Why 
was St. Leger sorry that Tupper was killed.^ This 
query and the reflections suggested by it created 
Q^reat commotion in Enos' army. An inconyen- 
lent demand for an explanation was made at Charles- 
town by Major Runnals of New Hampshire of Ira 
Allen and Chittenden. The demand came at the 
very moment that Governor Chittenden was fur- 
tively perusing the letters of Enos and his chief of 
staff to see how much of them it would be safe to 
read to a large and angry-looking throng of patriots 
who had followed into the very presence of the 
fiovernor the messeno-er who bore the letters. 

To divert attention from the letters, Allen affected 
to get very angry with Runnals and abused that 
good and brave man unmercifully for eating the 
substance of the people instead of being at the 
front. By the time that Runnals had flung himself 
from the room in a white heat of passion, Chitten- 
den was enabled to convene the Board of War. 
Before another demand for the letters could be 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. Sj 

made, new ones had been prepared. From these 
were omitted certain paragraphs of the originals, 
whose reading in Vermont might have had an 
awkward effect. It was a very narrow escape. 
Had the original letters been read by those not in 
the secret it would have fared very ill indeed with 
the Committee of Safety. 

The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown com- 
ing at about this time must have been a vast relief 
to the worried and anxious conspirators. The ne- 
gotiations were continued indeed until peace was 
declared in the following year, but the war had 
practically ceased and the Vermonters were nerved 
to perseverance by the thought that they saw the 
beginning of the end. 

General Haldimand and his superiors seem toward 
the last to have relaxed somewhat their efforts to 
hasten the slow steps of Chittenden and Allen. 
So it came about that though the proclamation de- 
claring Vermont a royal province was actually pre- 
pared, it was never published. On the news of 
peace the whole intrigue, having accomplished its 
object, was dropped forever. 

The success of these Cincinnati of Vermont in 
negotiatio-ns of the most delicate and intricate na- 
ture was somethino; almost marvelous. Chittenden 
who left the plough to guide the infant State as its 
first Governor was a farmer, Ira Allen was a land 



8S THE FIGHT TOR TIBERTY. 

surveyor, and these two men, neither of whom 
could to-day be called well-educated, neither of 
whom possessed the slightest experience in state- 
craft, met and solved some of the most diflficult 
problems which confronted any of the colonies. It 
is probably not too much to say of them and their 
associates that they saved Vermont from destruc- 
tion at a time when the northern frontier was left 
absolutely unprotected by Congress and when there 
was not in Vermont itself a sufificient force to repel 
an attack from the North, 

Nor was this all. Although intended primarily 
as a protection to Vermont alone, the negotiations 
with Haldimand were of great value to the other 
colonies, and especially to the ancient enemy, the 
" Yorkers." To have kept off further invasion 
from the north when all the colonial troops were 
grappling elsewhere with the king's redcoats was 
no small triumph for Green Mountain diplomacy, 
and a great service to the popular cause. 

It is remarkable that some of the Vermont his- 
torians who speak with barely-concealed exultation 
of the overturned haystacks and the whip-scars of 
the New York partisans in the heat of the boun- 
dary dispute have never quite forgiven Chittenden, 
Allen, Fay and their associates for having deceived 
the British with respect to their wish to declare 
Vermont a royal colony. I)ut deceit of an enemy 



THE FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. 89 

has always been considered justifiable in war and 
usually in diplomacy. The Vermonters at no time 
exceeded in this transaction the rules which have 
governed nations in civilized intercourse. Their 
motive was the preservation of the State. They 
sought no self-advantage. They played a game in 
which the people's safety was the stakes. It was a 
difficult one and they played it well, but they took 
no advantage and used no means which the sober 
judgment of posterity will condemn as unfair. 

The Revolutionary period practically closed the 
public labors of the Green Mountain leaders. Seth 
Warner, much broken in health, retired from the 
service soon after the battle of Bennington. His 
land had been sold for taxes while he was fiehtinsf 
the king and the last years of his life were strait- 
ened by poverty and clouded by fits of insanity. 
Baker had fallen in the Montreal campaign. Ethan 
Allen survived the war a short time, but he was 
never again so prominent in public affairs. He 
died at Burlington in 1789, leaving a memory 
which will undoubtedly long be held above that of 
any other man of Vermont. Chittenden and Ira 
Allen were his superiors in statecraft; Warner 
and Stark were more able leaders in war; but Ethan 
Allen was every inch a man. His ready wit, his 
personal strength, his courage and his rugged 
honesty made him a popular hero. 



90 THE FIGH2' FOR LIBERTY. 

No county was named for him as for Chittenden; 
no stream or peak of his home land Hnks his name 
to the soil he fought to defend ; but for a full cen- 
tury after his death his name has been both watch- 
word and rallying cry and regarded as the talisman 
of popularity. 

To the boys and girls of Vermont the Green 
Mountain Boys live in all the heroics of tradition 
and romance, while even from the earliest days they 
have grown familiar with Ethan Allen stoves, Ethan 
Allen ploughs and Ethan Allen machinery of all 
sorts. There have been Ethan Allen mills, Ethan 
Allen stock companies, Ethan Allen fire compan- 
ies and Ethan Allen streets. The name of the 
daring partisan leader has been used in Vermont 
much as has that of Washington throughout the 
Union, and it is likely to continue equally well- 
remembered, honored and olorified. 



CHAPTER IV. 



BUILDING THE STATE. 




HEN the war for lib- 
erty broke out, the 
seat and source of 
power in the new con- 
tinent was transferred 
from the king of Great 
Britain to the Conti- 
nental Co n g r e s s . 
With more confidence, 
in a fair hearing and a 
speedy compliance than they had ever felt in lay- 
ing their case before the distant court of the 
Georges, the settlers upon the New Hampshire 
Grants turned with their pleas to the Congress 
they had helped establish. 

Here, they reasoned, are men more familiar 
with our situation and more in sympathy with 
our wishes than the English king or his patrician 
councilors could ever be. But thev reckoned 

J 

without their host. They were cherishing a con- 
fidence which was destined to be rudely shaken 

91 



92 BUILDING THE STATE. 

in the long and complex negotiations which 
followed. 

At the outbreak of the Revolution, the attempts 
of the New Yorkers to force their jurisdiction upon 
the people of the Grants relapsed for the time. 
Heretofore the direction of affairs had been vested 
in royal governors anxious to enrich themselves 
and their associates by confiscation of the settlers' 
property and clothed with plenary power to carry 
out their wishes. Now it passed, after a consider- 
able period of indecision between king and colo- 
nies, to committees of safety. These had hardly 
more than advisory functions ; they were too much 
enQ;rossed in their all-absorbino- struQ-o-le with the 
Tory element in their own colony, and too deep in 
preparation for meeting King George's soldiers, to 
waste much time or thought upon the Grants. 

One result of the hurry and confusion of the time 
was a little wholesome neglect by which the peo- 
ple of Vermont were quick to profit. They under- 
stood perfectly well that the claims of New York 
were not abandoned, but only held in abeyance. 
In the early part of 1776 a convention was held at 
Dorset and attended by delegates representing eight- 
een of the western towns, to consider how far the 
inhabitants would submit to the authority of New 
York. The rio-ht of the kino- was not now rccoc;- 
nized in the colonics, and the convention resolved 



BUILDING THE STATE. 93 

to appeal from his decision in the boundary dispute 
to Congress. Dr. Jonas Fay, Captain Heman Allen 
and James Brackinridge were deputed to present the 
case of Vermont to Congress " by petition and re- 
monstrance," The petition which had been pre- 
pared recited the grievances of the people, and closed 
with the prayer that Congress would permit them 
to do duty in the Continental service as inhabitants 
of the New Hampshire Grants and not as inhabi- 
tants of New York. It was presented to Congress, 
but found little favor with that body, and was with- 
drawn by Allen in June. 

Another convention was held at Dorset on 
Allen's return, at which thirty-one towns were 
represented, and a resolution was passed pledging 
the lives and fortunes of the people to the common 
defence. A proposition to ask New Hampshire to 
form the Grants into a separate district was seri- 
ously considered, but nothing came of it. In the 
same month a convention of the eastern towns was 
held at Westminster and arrangements were made 
for a joint meeting at Dorset in September, repre- 
senting the towns on both sides of the mountain. 
The September convention again repudiated the 
authority of New York and organized a Committee 
of Safety, composed of such men as Samuel Chit- 
tenden, Ira Allen and Jonas Fay. In October the 
convention met again, but the country was then in 



94 BUILDING THE STATE. 

a fever of excitement over Carleton's invasion and 
an adjournment was effected to January 15, 1777, 
no other business being accomplished. 

The January convention was in session but three 
days, yet it was a meeting fraught with grave im- 
portance for the future, for on the seventeenth day 
of January, 1777, the declaration was passed that 
the territory known as the New Hampshire Grants 
" of right ought to be and is hereby declared for- 
ever to be considered as a separate free and inde- 
pendent jurisdiction or State." This Declaration 
of Independence was undoubtedly suggested by 
that adopted by the Philadelphia convention on 
July 4, 1776. It is a glowing memory to every 
loyal son of the Green Mountain State. To this 
day it is celebrated, not only in the State, but wher- 
ever from Maine to Texas, from Boston to San 
Francisco a few Vermonters are gathered together. 
On the seventeenth of January good children of 
the State eat butternuts and maple sugar, and pork 
and beans in honor of the Green Mountain Boys. 
They devote a few hours to the stirring old stones 
of Allen and Warner, of the cupidity of the 
" Yorkers," of the cruel craft of the Indians, and 
the Hessians' brutality and, above all, they laud the 
pluck and heroism which enabled the Vermonters 
of '77 to build the State of which its sons and 
daughters are to-day so proud. 



BUILDING THE STATE. 



95 



The convention in its choice of a name for the 
new State was at first so unfortunate as to pitch 
upon " New Connecticut," but before the year was 
out this was changed to Vermont, a fanciful title 
derived doubtless from the Reverend Samuel Peters 
act of christenino^ and from the Green Mountains 




V sK-j^ll ^ee some- 

body kvT\Q. , l oi^ vi 
Reclcfing 15 r\ob Kvr\g I 
will be Avna myself- 



which are the State's most notable natural object. 
The majority of the settlers were from Connecticut 
and their love of their old home suggested the 
name, but it was soon apparent that it was hardly 
a fit one for an independent commonwealth. No 
one has since regretted that the name was changed 



96 ' BUILDING THE STATE. 

or denied the appropriateness and beauty of the 
one finally selected. 

To set forth the claims of the new State another 
petition was prepared. This was sent to Congress 
by agents empowered to represent the people, but 
to the new petition no more favor was shown than 
to the old. It must not be held altogether to the 
discredit of Congress that it was not willing to act 
promptly in Vermont's favor. A large majority of 
the members were heartily in sympathy with the 
new State. They hesitated not to assure its dele- 
gates of this. But they were also mortally afraid of 
offending New York. That powerful colony was 
full of Tories whose wealth and influence were cast 
in the scale against the popular cause. The pos- 
session of New York was absolutely necessary. 
With the king in undisputed control of the prov- 
ince which lay like a wall between Massachusetts 
on the one hand and Virginia, Pennsylvania and 
the Carolinas on the other, the war for freedom 
would be waged at a serious disadvantage. How- 
ever much its members might sympathize with 
Vermont Congress could hardly afford to run much 
risk of alienating New York. It is probable that 
this risk was overestimated at the time, and that 
the admission of Vermont to an equality with the 
other colonies would not have turned New York 
over to the kino:. The different colonies had how- 



BUILDING THE STATE. 97 

ever but scant information of one another's real 
condition; it suited the New York agents to rep- 
resent the situation as extremely critical and 
Congress, as congresses will, fell into the not 
inexcusable error of unnecessary caution. 

Repulsed and discouraged the delegates returned 
to Vermont. Public interest ran high and sessions 
of the convention, more representative than any 
that had met before, were held in June and July. 
At the July session, which convened at Windsor, 
the Constitution of the State was adopted, under 
circumstances that were most peculiar. Burgoyne's 
advance up the lake and the evacuation of Ticon- 
deroga had been reported to the Assembly; many 
members were alarmed for the safety of their 
homes and families, and on the eighth of July 
were on the point of demanding an adjournment 
when a heavy thunder-shower came up. It was 
while waiting for this to subside that the con- 
vention passed, paragraph by paragraph, the first 
Constitution of Vermont. 

Though adopted with such appearance of haste, 
the new organic law of the State was well considered. 
It was admirably adapted to the needs of the times. 
Many of its ideas were borrowed from the Pennsyl- 
vania Constitution which had been recommended 
as a model by Dr. Thomas Young of Philadelphia. 
Its provisions were moderate and liberal and con- 



98 BUILDING THE STATE. 

trasted quite strongly with tliose of the Constitu- 
tion recently adopted by New York. That State 
had limited the franchise by a property cjualifica- 
tion ; Vermont imposed no such restriction. New 
York's Constitution affirmed the validity of the 
Albany patents in the disputed territory ; Ver- 
mont's as stoutly denied it. The liberty-loving 
citizens of the Green Mountain State in this nota- 
ble document gave practical proof of their faith in 
freedom, for their Constitution prohibited slavery 
within the limits of the State. Property in man 
was at that time not only permitted but practised 
throughout the entire north and to Vermont there- 
fore belongs the credit of first setting the official seal 
of condemnation against the evil. For the rest, the 
Constitution vested the legislative power in an 
Assembly elected by ballot, one member from each 
town, while to a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor 
and twelve Councilors, elected by ballot of the 
whole State, were entrusted duties mainly of an 
executive and advisory nature. 

The first election under the new Constitution 
was held in the spring of 1778. Thomas Chit- 
tenden, who had been President of the Committee 
of Safety, was chosen Governor. The new Legis- 
lature was at once confronted by grave financial 
problems. A loan office had been opened the 
previous year and the people invited to lend money 



BUILDING THE STATE. 99 

upon six per cent, interest. Few however had re- 
sponded to the invitation. Money was imperatively- 
needed to carry on the war, and a bill was passed 
providing for the confiscation and sale of the es- 
tates of Tories, an example which was followed by 
all the other States. 

The Committee or Council of Safety had already 
seized the personal property of the Tories for the 
general use. The unfortunate loyalists were now 
stripped of their lands, and all that they possessed. 
Not quite all, however; for a certain amount of 
household furniture, painfully enumerated by hands 
unused to the pen in the old inventories which have 
come down to us, was allowed each housewife who 
wished to leave the State and join her Tory hus- 
band or friends. 

Since the war began and the authority of the 
New York courts had been repudiated, the Grants 
had been in a chaotic condition that would have 
merged into anarchy, had it not been for the good 
sense and good counsel of the people. Until the 
new Constitution was framed and the provisions 
made in it for courts and legal processes could be 
appealed to, the citizens were practically without 
law, though by the town and State committees a 
rude but summary justice was administered. 

The temper of the people was well illustrated in 
the summer of 1778 by the incidents attending the 



lOO BUILDING THE STATE. 

execution of David Redding. This individual had 
been found guilty of acting as a spy for the enemy 
and condemned to be hung on June 4, the day 
appointed for the meeting of the Legislature. Law- 
yers were scarce in those days, but on the very 
morning of the execution some one who happened 
to possess a copy of Blackstone, applied to the Gov- 
ernor and Council for a reprieve on the ground that 
Redding had been tried by a jury of only six of his 
peers instead of twelve. The reprieve was granted, 
much to the disgust of the multitude. They had 
assembled to see a spy hung and they were 
strongly inclined to take the matter into their own 
hands. 

When the murmurings were loudest Ethan Allen, 
just back from imprisonment in New York, spoke 
to the crowd from a stump. He explained why the 
execution had been delayed, and added, " You shall 
see somebody hung, for if Redding is not hung I 
will be hung myself." No one wished to see the 
hero of Ticonderoga thus summarily cut off, but 
the grim humor of his utterance put the people into 
the best of temper, and they dispersed with confi- 
dence that Redding would not escape his deserts. 
A jury of twelve good men and true was promptly 
impaneled, and one week later upon their verdict 
the spy was executed. It is to the credit of the 
people that this was the only serious disturbance 



BUILDING THE STATE. I03 

during the two years when the State was deprived 
of courts and all legal machinery. 

One of the first matters with which the new Leg- 
islature must deal was a petition from sixteen 
western towns of New Hampshire for permission 
to join the State. The petition was favorably con- 
sidered, but New Hampshire, which had until then 
been very friendly to Vermont, at once became 
quite the reverse, and for the time that State as 
well as New York was to be reckoned among the 
enemies of the Grants. Allen, who had been sent 
to Congress to represent Vermont as a suitor for 
admission to the Union, reported this unfavorable 
condition of affairs. In October the Legislature 
repaired its mistake and voted that no change 
should be made in the old boundaries. 

Proposition and counter proposition for the set- 
tlement of the dispute met in Congress and de- 
feated each other. Soon after the petition of the 
sixteen towns above referred to, a plan was put 
forward to divide Vermont between New Hamp- 
shire and New York, giving the lands east of the 
mountain to the former and those west to the latter. 
The proposition was satisfactory to New York, it 
suited the irate temper of New Hampshire, but a 
piteous wail went up from New Yorkers claiming 
land on the east side of the mountain. This the 
New York delegates in Congress would have been 



I04 BUILDING THE STATE. 

willing to disregard, but opposition to the division 
scheme now arose from unexpected quarters. Mas- 
sachusetts for the moment revived her claim to the 
territory, apparently only with the friendly object 
of defeatingr the division scheme, and some of the 
Southern States, jealous of New York's power and 
importance, declared themselves unwilling to sanc- 
tion any arrangement which should confirm its title 
to either the whole or a part of Vermont. 

Meanwhile the Legislature was recruiting its lean 
treasury by regranting townships where the land 
had already been patented by New York. A scheme 
for enlarging the boundaries by annexing to the 
new State not only the western towns of New 
Hampshire but the northeastern ones of New York 
was seriously discussed. The eagerness with w^iich 
it was caught up by those poorer residents of the 
latter State, who were deprived of the franchise 
by the property qualification in its Constitution, 
showed that the people of the Grants had many 
friends among the " Yorkers." Indeed in the latter 
part of 1780, the aristocratic Senate at Albany was 
only prevented from ceding the jurisdiction of 
Vermont by a threat from Governor Clinton that 
he would prorogue that body if it persisted. 

Shortly after this time the proposed union with 
a number of towns east of the Connecticut and 
west of the New York line was actually consum- 



BUILDING THE STATE. 105 

mated. The members from these towns were sfiven 
seats in the Vermont assembly, and Governor Chit- 
tenden publicly proclaimed the annexation. 

This bold measure greatly helped Vermont with 
Congress, and that body was further impelled to 
consider her wishes by the fear that her people 
might form an alliance with Great Britain. The 
letter of Colonel Robinson to Ethan Allen already 
referred to was in the following March submitted 
to Congress. It served to deepen the feeling of 
apprehension, and on the twentieth of August a 
resolution was adopted. New York alone voting in 
the negative, stating that an indispensable prelimi- 
nary to the recognition of Vermont as a separate 
State should be its explicit relinquishment of the 
territory claimed by it east of the Connecticut and 
west of the twenty-mile line. 

This proposition was eminently reasonable and 
it is possible that if it had been promptly accepted 
the State might then have been admitted to the 
Union. But whether the Legislature feared that 
Congress would fail to keep its implied promise 
or was prevented from complying by the belief 
that it could hold all the territory over which it 
claimed jurisdiction, the suggestion was not ac- 
cepted. The opportunity was lost. For when in 
the following spring a delegation appeared before 
Congress prepared, by the advice of General 



Io6 BUILDING THE STATE. 

Washington, to agree to the terms proposed, that 
body was again in a timid and dilatory mood 
and the delegates returned home disgusted and 
unsuccessful. 

Meanwhile New York had recovered somewhat 
from the confusion into which the outbreak of the 
war had thrown her and the authorities had re- 
sumed their efforts to establish their sway to the 
banks of the Connecticut. Governor Clinton (among 
whose many excellent qualities an iron will was 
conceded by all in Vermont to be the most promi- 
nent) lent every encouragement in his power to the 
Yorkers in the southeastern corner of the State. 
He appointed civil and military ofificers of his 
faction in that section and advised them to uphold 
their authority by force. 

Colonel Timothy Church, whose commission was 
Issued by Clinton, was the ruling spirit among the 
Yorkers of Windham County, as that portion of 
the State had been designated. Firm in his adhe- 
rence to New York he forcibly resisted the execu- 
tion of a judgment rendered against him by a 
Vermont justice in a civil suit. The Vermont 
sheriff, thus repelled by Church and his men, com- 
plained to Governor Chittenden, and Ethan Allen 
was commissioned to lead two hundred and fift}^ 
volunteers to ])ut down the " Windham County 
rebellion." Church, Timothy Phelps the New 



BUILDING THE STATE. 1 07 

York sheriff and others were arrested, and at the 
next session of the court it was decreed that they 
should be banished and forbidden to return under 
penalty of death. Their estates were confiscated 
to the use of the State. 

Congress by a close vote on the fifth of Decem- 
ber adopted a resolution condemning the treatment 
of Church and Phelps, and ordering the restitution 
of their property. No attention was paid to the 
order though it was accompanied by a threat to 
march troops into the State to enforce it. Event- 
ually New York recompensed the exiles by a gen- 
erous tract of land in Chenango County. Church 
and Phelps returned to Windham County in 1783. 
Here Phelps endeavored to act as sheriff, but he 
and Church were both promptly rearrested, as well 
as a number of their adherents who before had 
escaped or eluded capture. With these energetic 
measures the last attempt of the land jobbers to 
rule the State ceased. 

The formal declaration of peace in September, 
1783, did not decrease or alter the determination 
of Vermont to uphold its independence of New 
York. It did however put an end for the time 
being to its desire to enter the Union. The State 
was included in the territory whose freedom was 
conceded by Great Britain, and as New York's 
claims to authority were no longer seriously urged, 



Io8 BUILDING THE STATE. 

its independence was complete. So long as the 
war lasted there was every reason to desire the 
union with the other States, to share with them 
such protection against invasion as the feeble Con- 
tinental armies could afford, and bear becomingly 
as an equal a part in the toils and dangers of the 
common defense. But when the peace was signed 
and the actual stress of war ended, Vermont's 
resentment toward the Congress which had for 
years evaded its plea for admission was reinforced 
by other and more cogent arguments for holding 
aloof. The former colonies were bound together 
into a weak confederacy by a tie that was but a 
rope of sand. It was a confederacy crushed by a 
hopeless debt and torn by internal dissensions — 
a confederacy which Europe confidently looked to 
see dismembered and of whose permanence the 
most ardent friends of freedom had often little 
hope. There was little reason now for Vermont, 
unencumbered by debt, unvexed by rivalries, grow- 
ing in wealth and population at an unprecedented 
rate, and free to choose its own destiny, to desire 
admission to so uncertain a Union. And so for 
eight years its people turned their attention to the 
affairs of the State, sadly disordered by war and 
controversy. 

During this period there was absolutely no limit 
to the powers vested in the Legislature. It was the 



BUILDING THE STATE. 



109 



sole ruling power in what was to all intents and 
purposes an independent nation ; it was a nation in 
all but name, so far as any power exercised over it 
by Congress was concerned, yet it did not choose 
to exercise any authority more generous than that 
claimed by the other States under the loose federa- 
tion, and these were indeed quite sufficient for the 
orderino^ of all its affairs. It fixed its own weio-hts . 
and measures, established a minor coinage, organized I 
a militia and set up a post-office department under | 
a postmaster general, with offices in a few of the ^ 
chief towns, pony expresses to outside points and a 
sliding scale of charges varying with the distance 
but uniform with those of the other States. More 

important to the pros- ^y^AMLLCN'MONUMCNT 

perity of the people 

than all these, was the 

leo:islation for the sim- 

plification of the legal 

tangles that clouded 

the title of much of the 

real estate. 

The natural result of 
the boundary dispute 
had been to multiply 
litigation in ejectment 
suits, but this litigation 
was reduced to a min- 



O fNl. 




no BUILDING THE STATE. 

imum by wise and prudent yet radical legislation 
modifying the severity of the common law. By 
ancient usage the occupant of land whose title 
should prove defective no matter how many years 
he had been in possession, had no redress against 
the rio-htful owner, nor had he anv means of secur- 
ing payment for the improvements he might have 
made. In Vermont, however, special statutes were 
made in favor of one who in good faith was the 
occupant. They provided for an equitable enjoy- 
ment by him of his improvements and of the lands 
themselves upon a reasonable payment. 

Singularly enough, Vermont's final admission to 
the Union was largely accomplished through the 
agency of her ancient enemy New York. There 
had always been in that colony a strong minority 
who favored the Vermonters' claims. Even the 
most obstinate now beo-an to see that there was 
absolutely no hope of reclaiming the disputed terri- 
tory. On the other hand the power and influence 
of the Northern States in Congress would be in- 
creased by the admission of another from that 
section. Kentucky had applied for admission, and 
her influence, unless counterbalanced by that of a 
new Northern State, would still further enhance 
the commanding position of the South. 

The struQ^o-le between the two sections for the 
possession of the Federal capital caused New York 



BUILDING THE STATE. Ill 

bitter reeret that Vermont had not been admitted 
to add her vote in Congress to the northern side. 
The adoption of the Constitution in 1789 removed 
one strong popular objection to reapplying for ad- 
mission. Now for the first time in its history the 
Union seemed to be established upon a foundation 
firm enough to promise permanence. The Vermont- 
ers were stanch Federalists. They believed in a 
strone government and looked with more favor upon 
the United States, clothed with its new Federal 
powers, than they had upon the weak confederacy. 

Standing in this altered position, both parties 
to the long dispute made a move toward comity. 
Commissioners from the two States met each other 
to finally determine the boundary dispute and, after 
considerable delay. New York agreed, upon the 
payment by Vermont of thirty thousand dollars as 
a partial indemnity for the losses which citizens of 
the former State had sustained, to relinquish all 
claim to the territory. The Legislatures of the two 
disputants ratified the agreement, and on the eight- 
eenth of February, 1791, Congress declared that 
on the fourth of March next ensuing Vermont 
should be admitted " as a new and entire member 
of the United States of America." 

Thus ended the longest and most bitterly con- 
tested internal boundary dispute in the history of 
the country. The effect of the controversy upon 



112 BUILDING THE STATE. 

the people had been marked and it continued to 
exert its influence upon them and the popular trend 
of thought for many years to come. So much dis- 
cussion of grave public questions had made them pre- 
eminently a people jealous of their political rights, 
quick in expedients, abounding in public spirit and 
in devotion to the common cause. They were 
prone to political discussions and to the study of 
the law. Of all the learned professions, this has 
since attracted the largest proportion of Vermont's 
aspiring youth. The people of the new State had 
deemed their rights worth fighting for; they had 
dared and suffered much to maintain them. What 
had cost them so much they valued and were 
ready to defend. They were, in a word, ideal citi- 
zens of a free republic. As was natural in a 
commonwealth which had just passed through a 
long and bloody war and had still abundant cause 
to fear its repetition, the militia of the State was 
numerous and well drilled. In 1792 it consisted 
of twenty regiments of infantry, fifteen companies 
of cavalry and six companies of artillery and must 
have included nearly all the male inhabitants of 
suitable ao-e to bear arms. 

The government of the State at the time of its 
admission was sim]:)licity itself. There was no 
capital city and no State House. Each year the 
Legislature met for a few days in October at some 



BUILDING THE STATE. 1 13 

one of the larger towns designated by vote for that 
purpose. The members, like the State officials, 
were generally farmers. The pay accorded to the 
highest servants of the State was meagre com- 
pared with modern standards, yet it was not then 
complained of as insufficient. The Governor re- 
ceived one hundred and fifty pounds a year; the 
Lieutenant-Governor was paid fifteen shillings per 
day while the Assembly was in session, the Gover- 
nor's Councilors seven shillings a day and the 
Assemblymen six shillings. The Secretary of 
State received twelve shillings per day and the 
Secretary of the Council nine shillings during the 
few days in the year when actually employed. 
The Justice of the Supreme Court received one 
pound seven shillings and the Associate Justices 
one pound two shillings daily. 

The year after the admission of the State its 
constitution was somewhat altered. The test oath 
prescribed for members of the Assembly was abol- 
ished, the religious liberty of legislators being 
secured by a clause which provided that " no relig- 
ious test shall be required of any member of the 
Assembly." Provision was made for the future re- 
vision of the Constitution and laws by the rather 
remarkable device of a Council of Censors, meet- 
ing every seven years, the members of which were 
to suggest changes in the laws and Constitution. 



114 BUILDING THE STATE. 

Thus, at the beginning of the new century, was 
the Green Mountain State introduced into the sis- 
terhood of commonwealths. Her preparation had 
been long, peculiar, perplexing and hazardous. But 
it had bred in her people a strength of purpose 
and a practical common-sense that were especially 
needed for the consistent development of a great, 
free State. 

With full popular suffrage, with slavery pro- 
hibited, with no religious distinctions or disabili- 
ties, the wisdom of her citizens was emphasized 
by her lenient laws and Vermont at once took her 
stand as one of the most liberal and progressive 
States of the young Union. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 




Voted 



O long as her first Gov- 
ernor lived there was 
only one political party 
in Vermont — the 
Chittenden party. 
That shrewd and 
virtuous man had 
cheated the British 
bayonets by homespun 
diplomacy ; he had 
guided the State safely through the trying times of 
its independence ; he was spared to see it at last 
united with the other commonwealths. He was the 
father of the State and year after year with a single 
exception he was re-elected by its grateful citizens 
to the chief ofifice in their gift. In the summer of 
1797 failing health forced him to resign the post 
of Governor and he died soon after full of years 
and honor. 

Thomas Chittenden was not a popular hero like 
Allen. His name is scarcely known outside of the 

"5 



Il6 THE PARTIES DIVWE. 

State he served. Yet it should rank with those of 
Adams and Hancock and Morris, for of the great 
men whom the Revokitionary period called forth to 
bear the burden of the public safety he was one of 
the wisest and purest. Chittenden was a genuine 
Yankee ; he was a typical Vermonten A plain, 
hard-working farmer with only an average educa- 
tion he possessed much native keenness of vision, 
great coolness and almost unerring judgment. His 
task was one of the most difficult that ever con- 
fronted a leader of the people and yet it cannot now 
be seen that he ever made or sanctioned more than 
one serious blunder. He has been most sharply 
criticised for that portion of his official career which, 
more than any other, showed his keenness of insight, 
his judgment and his devotion to the popular cause. 
This was, of course, his deceit of the British in the 
closing years of the war. Th(i charge that he 
really desired a British alliance need not be seri- 
ously considered. It has been made, but there is 
no apparent justification in the facts. His services 
in that trying period are now generally recognized 
and appreciated. 

At the very foundation of the republic the people 
had divided, on constitutional questions, into two 
great parties. Of these the Federalists believed 
in what would now be called a strongly centralized 
government; they were accused by their opponents 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. II7 

of a secret hankering after the British fleshpots and 
the gewgaws of royalty. The Republicans pro- 
fessed the strongest admiration for France and 
held that, in home politics, the best government was 
that which governed least and left most to the 
States. The virulence of party strife was somewhat 
allayed by Washington's commanding influence so 
long as he remained President ; it seemed to rage 
with even greater fury after his death. In Vermont, 
as we have seen, the voters were, at the time of the 
adoption of the constitution. Federalists for the 
most part ; they so remained during Chittenden's 
life, though there was a strong and active minority 
of the French party. The successor of Chittenden 
was also a Federalist, Isaac Tichenor. He had 
been Chief Justice. In the absence of a popular 
choice for governor he was appointed by the Legis- 
lature, but was thereafter elected to the office for a 
number of successive years. He was not long, how- 
ever, to enjoy the support of a Legislature in sym- 
pathy with his political views. 

The year 1798 was one of high political excite- 
ment growing out of the passage of the alien and 
sedition laws, an act which cost President Adams 
and the Federalist party the control of affairs. 
These laws exercised a vast influence upon the 
early political history of the country but were 
deemed wholly foreign to the spirit of its free insti- 



Il8 THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

tutions. They permitted the President to expel 
from the country any alien whose presence here 
might be thought a source of danger and fixed a 
penalty for seditious language employed toward 
those in authority. The first provision was assailed 
as an invasion of the right of sanctuary upon the 
soil of America accorded to foreign exiles ; the 
second was termed a blow at free speech. The Leg- 
islatures of Kentucky and Virginia passed resolu- 
tions denouncing /\dams and his laws. To these 
resolutions the Assembly of Vermont felt bound to 
make answer by emphatic declamation that "it 
belongs not to State Legislatures to decide on the 
constitutionality of laws made by the general gov- 
ernment ; this power being exclusively vested in 
the judiciary courts of the nation." This was sound 
Federalist doctrine, but it was not long to find favor 
with the people. 

Another fruitful source of partisan strife was 
the crreat duel which France and Great Britain 
were then fio-htins: out on land and sea. In its 
result the whole civilized world felt so deep an 
interest that all other nations of any importance 
were, at one time or another and in \'ar3dng, 
kaleidoscopic combinations, drawn into the strife. 
Neither side was at all careful of the rights of neu- 
trals; the encroachments of each in turn upon 
American commerce brought forth emphatic re- 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 



1 19 



monstrances from the people of America. So long 
as the Federalists held the power in State and 
nation it was France against which the w^eightiest 
protests were uttered. In 1 798, Governor Tichenor 
and the Federalist Legislature " viewed with alarm " 
the increasing insolence of France and roundly 




lr\ iKe Green ^'^^'^ 



abused that new republican power. But a change 
was at hand. 

Partly through the hostility to the alien and 
sedition acts, partly because Great Britain had 
the power and the will to harm American com- 
merce more than France, and partly, too, from 



I20 THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

that tendency to vibrate between two opposing 
parties which usually marks the political course of 
constitutional governments, the Republicans, or 
Democratic Republicans, as the French party 
was called, gained control of Federal affairs just 
at the beginning of the century. In the following- 
year Vermont also elected a Republican Legis- 
lature, though Governor Tichenor was, with a single 
exception, successively re-elected until 1S09. He 
was a worthy man with a clear head and a strong 
will. His chief legacy to his successors was the 
practice of opening the sessions of the Legislature 
with a speech or messaQ;e, now common in all the 
States. He was the first but by no means the 
last Governor to use these official utterances to 
belabor his political opponents ; the Legislature 
replying in kind, the early years of the century 
witnessed some very bitter disputes. But the 
business of the State does not seem to have been 
neglected. The legislators had not learned the 
trick of making party questions out of matters of 
public concern really unconnected with political 
divisions. They did their work promptly and 
with good judgment and their wrangling with 
the Governor did little harm so far as can now 
be seen. 

The practice of displacing political opponents 
from office without just cause began in Vermont 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 121 

during this period. The first remarkable instance 
on record was the ousting of Chief Justice Israel 
Smith in 1798, on the sole ground that he was a 
Republican. When Jefferson was elected Presi- 
dent he removed many Federalist United States 
officials in Vermont and replaced them by good 
Republicans, and his party in the Legislature began 
the same work with vigor in 1803. It is probable 
that these removals then as now often worked in 
the wrong direction, for the only break in Governor 
Tichenor's long lease of power was made by the 
election in 1807 of the deposed Chief Justice Israel 
Smith to his office. 

The question of slavery even thus early was one 
which entered into political divisions. In 1804 
Massachusetts, through its Federalist Legislature, 
proposed a Constitutional amendment changing 
the apportionment of representatives in Congress. 
As the Constitution then stood, three fifths of the 
slave population of the slave States was added to 
the entire free population to fix the basis of Con- 
gressional apportionment. The proposal of the 
Massachusetts Legislature — an eminently fair and 
just one — was that thereafter only the free popu- 
lation be reckoned. This proposition was opposed 
by all the Republican States and favored by the 
Federalist ones for obvious political reasons. 
The free North was generally Federalist, while 



122 THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

the slave States were Republican. Yet had it 
been possible to so amend the Constitution, the 
slave power would not have wielded for so many 
years the commanding power in our national 
councils which it did. It is even possible that the 
downfall of the hateful system might have come 
earlier and cost less. Vermont in this matter 
went with its party against most of the other free 
States in opposing the change. This, however, is 
the only instance on record where, in any important 
decision, the State sided with slavery. 

In 1809, the Legislature still remained Repub- 
lican, and an ardent partisan of that stripe, the Rev. 
Jonas Galusha, a Baptist clergyman, was elected 
Governor. It was perhaps this good man of whom 
the story is related that upon his first appearance 
in the Assembly, some wag shouted " Now sing 
' Mear,' " that being the preacher-governor's favorite 
hymn. His candidacy must have been a good thing 
for the Republican party, for its members were 
often charged with copying the irreligion of the 
French, as well as espousing their political fortunes, 
and the nomination of a well-known clergyman 
was a refutation of this idea stronger in its effect 
than in its logical cogency. 

With France and Great Britain fighting in 
Europe and their respective partisans bickering in 
America, it was evident that any war waged by the 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. I 23 

United States with either power must necessarily 
be a party war, supported only by a majority and 
sullenly opposed by the party out of power. Such 
in fact was the War of 181 2 into which the country 
was finally driven by the increasing insolence of 
Great Britain. It was not a popular war. It was 
most strenuously opposed by the Federalists in 
New England who carried their obstructive meas- 
ures almost to the verge of secession. 

Vermont too was found among the opposing 
States when the war was fairly begun. In the year 
181 3, after a long period of uninterrupted control 
by the French party, Martin Chittenden, a son of 
the first governor and a stanch Federalist, was 
elected Governor. The Legislature chosen at the 
same election was also of that party. Vermont was 
again in line with the rest of New Enorland and its 
opposition to a war which, though practically forced 
upon the country, was in essentials causeless and 
profitless, was certainly not without some reason. 

But the Vermonters did not carry their oppo- 
sition to the war to such a point as to sit passive 
when an invasion of the State was threatened. As 
of old the British prepared to cut the Union 
asunder by sending an army down Lake Cham- 
plain. As of old, too, the attempt ended in an 
ignominious failure, and the men of Vermont were 
found valiantly fighting for their homes and country. 



124 'rHE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

The campaign of 1S13 was brief but not unevent- 
ful. Early in the summer an American sloop of 
war, the Growler, was captured by the British 
gunboats on the upper lake. The Americans after- 
ward equipped a small fleet and the British sailors 
were driven back into Canada, but not before they 
had taken and destroyed the barracks at Platts- 
buro-, and crossed the lake for an unsuccessful 
attack upon Burlington. From the latter city an 
American force set out for the invasion of Canada, 
but was repulsed at Chateaugay and returned 
to winter quarters at Plattsburg, In November, 
1813, Governor Chittenden issued his order recall- 
ing to the State a regiment of the militia which had 
been drafted into the service of the United States. 
Most of the officers disobeyed the summons and 
remained in Plattsburg, but the privates generally 
availed themselves of the opportunity to return 
home. No enemy was to be feared before spring; 
there was nothing to be done at Plattsburg save to 
repair the ruined barracks, and the men probably 
reasoned that they could find chopping and digging- 
enough to do at home. It is likely that these 
homely considerations had quite as much to do 
with the issuance of Governor Chittenden's order 
as had his opposition to the war. 

For several miles below tlie falls at Winooski, 
the Otter Creek, flowing gently toward the lake, 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 1 27 

affords a safe and excellent anchorage for vessels 
of moderate size. Here during the winter and 
spring of 18 14, upon the shores of the creek and 
upon its waters after the ice had melted, was fitted 
out a fleet which was to win one of the most signal 
naval victories in a war the most glorious achieve- 
ments of which were upon the water. The timber 
for its construction was cut in the surrounding 
hills; the saw-mills just above sang merrily at their 
patriotic task ; blacksmiths heated their forges and 
fashioned nails and bolts from the s^lowino- iron ; 
cannon and ammunition were brought from the 
South, naval stores were collected, masts and spars 
were tapered from native trees and sails were bent 
to fit them. There had been during the previous 
year a few vessels upon the lake ; with these and 
the new fleet there floated upon the creek, when 
all the preparations were complete in May, rather 
more than a dozen small craft. These were the 
flag-ship Saratoga of twenty-six guns, one brig, 
two schooners and eleven open galleys. 

In command of all was a quiet man of irregular 
but pleasing features, who bore the title of Lieu- 
tenant in the United States Navy. He had served 
under Bainbridge and Decatur, and stories were 
told of his prowess by those who watched him day 
by day as he directed the fitting out of the fleet, and 
who took much comfort from the quiet confidence 



128 THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

of his bearing. This man was Thomas McDonough, 
a name now high on his country's roll of honor.* 

Once again the stirring nervous times which the 
graybeards among them remembered so well, when 
Burgoyne and Carleton came up the lake and Frazer 
chased the flying militia across the State, seemed 
to have come upon the Vermonters. A host of 
men were advancinsf down the lake to crush the 
Yankee troops at Plattsburg. Rumor greatly 
maonified their number but it was laro-e enoucrh in 
fact to justify forebodings. General Prevost had 
under his command full fourteen thousand men. 
Some of these were Peninsular veterans who had 
fouo'ht under Wellino-ton ; some were raw^ levies, 
but well armed and officered ; some were Indian 
allies from the Canadian and Western tribes. 
Rumor did not need to magnify the British naval 
force. Every schoolboy in Vermont knew long be- 
fore the glint of the British Commodore Dowmie's 
white sails were seen in the north that his flagship, 
the Confiance, mounted thirty-eight guns, that he 
had one brig, two sloops of w^ar and twelve gun- 
boats, manned by a force of British tars nearly twice 
as strono- as McDonoucrh's. So lar^e was Prevost's 
force that it was already September before he had 

* " His skill, seamanship, quick eye, readiness of resource and indomitable pluck, are 
beyond all praise. Down to the time of the Civil War he is the greatest figure in our naval 
history. A thoroughly religious man, lie was as generous and humane as he was skillful and 
brave; one of the greatest of our sea-captains, he has left a stainless name behind him." — 
RoosevcWs " ll^'ar <2/iSi2." 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. I 29 

completed his preparations and appeared before 
Plattsburg. The hastily re-built intrenchments of 
that lake town were manned by less than half the 
number of Prevost's men, and many of these were 
raw levies who had never smelt powder in actual 
conflict. 

Behind the American intrenchments were to be 
seen many of the men who had returned to Vermont 
in the previous autumn at Governor Chittenden's 
order. They had plowed their fields and cut and 
stored their crops for winter before the long- 
expected messengers came riding through the land 
in every direction crying out as they went that the 
British were coming and it was time to rally for 
defense. Catching their muskets from the chimney 
pieces, the Vermont militia-men gathered from far 
and near, crossed the lake and took their places 
behind the rude works of defense which covered 
the American line. 

From May till September McDonough's fleet 
had been awaiting the British onset. But as soon as 
Prevost's forces were fairly under way, down came 
the British ships prepared to do battle on the same 
day that the army attacked Plattsburg. Almost at 
the bes^innino- of the action a shot from the Con- 
fiance broke in pieces a hen-coop on the deck of the 
Saratoga. It was then that an imprisoned cock 
that had lain in cramped quarters for many a day 



130 THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

with no better fate In prospect than to be inglori- 
ously eaten, won undying fame by flying to the bul- 
wark and crowing a shrill defiance at the invaders. 

" Hurrah ! " cried some of the crew ; others rudely 
imitated the outcry of the cock, and the action 
was continued in a whirlwind of cheery yelling 
which raised the spirit of the Americans not a little. 
All took it as an augury of certain victory. In two 
hours the British fleet was completely routed and 
Commodore Downie killed. Prevost heard the 
victorious cries of the Yankee sailors, saw that the 
supporting fleet was driven back and retreated 
before the hot fire of the defenders of Plattsburo-. 
He has been accused of giving up the battle too 
soon. It is probable that he could have driven 
away the defenders from the town by sheer force 
of numbers. It is also possible that, remembering 
Burgoyne's fate, he did not care to risk the ultimate 
capture of his entire force, cooped up on the lake 
with no fleet to assist it. However that may be, he 
never stopped running until Canada was reached. 
By that time he had lost, of his fine army, in battle 
and by desertion, some two thousand men. 

The victory was, considering the disparity of the 
forces eno-ao-ed, one of the most brilliant of the 
whole war. The hot fight on the lake was wit- 
nessed by thousands of non-combatants from the 
Vermont shore and the Leijislature of the State 

O 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 131 

was so impressed by the value of McDonough's 
service in driving back the intruders that the 
Assembly voted to him a present of a fine farm 
overlooking the scene of the victory. This was 
the last time that a British force ever vexed the soil 
of Vermont. The war closed with the end of the 
year and Jackson's brilliant victory at New Orleans, 
which was its last pitched battle, was fought after 
the declaration of peace, but before the news had 
reached this side of the Atlantic. 

Nearly fifty years after the close of the war, in 
the dark days of the opening rebellion, General 
Scott said with a feeling tremor in his voice : 
" Give me your Vermont regiments ; all your Ver- 
mont regiments. I remember the Vermonters at 
Lundy's Lane." It was when the army for the 
suppression of the rebellion was being called to- 
gether from all parts of the Union, when all eyes 
were turned on Washino;ton and the Q-rim old sol- 
dier was bending under the weight of cares and 
responsibilities too great for his years. The Ver- 
monters, in spite of Governor Chittenden, had 
fought with all their old Revolutionary vigor on 
other fields than that of Plattsburs^. From the ear- 
liest days they were fighting men when there was 
occasion or excuse for fighting, and in 181 2 a 
little difference of opinion about the expediency 
of the war was not allowed to keep them out of the 



132 ^ THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

thickest of the scrimmage where the most and hard- 
est blows could be given and w^ere to be expected. 

The war meant nothing; it decided nothing. 
Neither side was victorious, though the advantage 
in the fight seems to have been on the American 
side on the sea and with their foe on land. The 
hostilities simply stopped of their own accord when 
the allies against France put Napoleon upon Elba 
in the fond expectation that the " Corsican up- 
start " would stay there, and the peace of Europe 
remain undisturbed ; they w^ere not resumed in the 
brief but eventful campaign which began with 
Napoleons escape and ended with Waterloo and 
St. Helena. The Federalists had been right in 
opposing a war which was caused solely by Euro- 
pean complications ; the Republicans were right 
in insisting that British aggressions upon neutral 
commerce were unbearable. 

One service, indeed, the war did render to the 
people of America. It stilled for a time the strife 
of parties and brought them closer together than 
they had been since the War of Independence. 
When the President of the United States was 
forced to flee from Washino-ton ; when the Brit- 
ish officers mocked the proceedings of Congress 
in the vacant hall of the Capitol and then burned 
it to the ground, the insult brought the people in 
closer union once more and the Federalists rejoiced 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 



133 



quite as heartily as did the Republicans over Jack- 
son's brilliant victory at New Orleans. The Demo- 
cratic Republican party had declared war as a meas- 
ure of party necessity at a time when the country 
seemed almost equally divided between them and 
their opponents. They came out of it so much 
strengthened that their candidate for President, 
James Monroe, received one hundred and eighty- 
three out of the two hundred and seventeen elec- 
toral votes in the election of 18 16, and was re- 
elected in 1820, receiving out of two hundred and 
thirty-two electoral votes two hundred and thirty- 
one. The eight years of his administration have 
always been called the "era of good feeling," be- 
cause of the lack of 
political strife, and the 
kindly regard in which 
all held the administra- 
tion. Yet those who 
fondly imagined that 
political contentions 
were permanently stilled 
were destined to a rude 
awakeninof. 

It is hardly necessary 
to say that Vermont, 
which went into the 
war a Federalist State, 




134 THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

came out of it Republican in politics and supported 
Monroe both in 1816 and 1820. Martin Chitten- 
den's term of office was brief and from the close 
of the war to 1822, that stanch sympathizer with 
France, the Rev. Jonas Galusha, was successively 
elected Governor. In the latter year he was 
succeeded by Richard Skinner, and he in turn 
gave way in 1823 to C. P. Van Ness who held 
office for three consecutive years. 

The swing of the political pendulum had by 
this time brought New England back to the 
Federalist allegiance, though not to the Feder- 
alist name. The old party of Washington and 
Hamilton and the Adamses had vanished but its 
lesfitimate successor was that wino- of the ereat 
Monroe party which followed John Ouincy Adams 
rather than Jackson when the inevitable division 
came. It was not possible that the practicallv 
unanimous election by which Monroe had been 
chosen in 1820 could be repeated in 1824. Politi- 
cal questions had risen out of their graves to stand 
again between two national parties and John Ouincy 
Adams, though a member of Monroe's cabinet, was 
the leader under whom the old Federalists who 
had supported his father ranged themselves for the 
contest of that year. The clumsy title National 
Republican was for a while used by the Adams 
part}^ to distinguish itself from the Democratic 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 1 35 

Republicans, but the latter soon dropped half 
of their distinctive name and became known as 
Democrats merely, while the former transmitted 
through the Whigs a great part of their politi- 
cal creed and heritage to the Republican party of 
to-day. 

With New England went Vermont in that 
momentous and hard-fought Presidential cam- 
paign which brought the era of good feeling to 
an end. Adams received the vote of Vermont, 
but did not control a majority of the electors. 
He was finally chosen President in the House 
of Representatives by the help of Henry Clay. 

From that day to the present, it is reasonably 
correct to say, the political complexion of Vermont 
has never changed. The era of party changes within 
the State lasted less than a quarter of a century. 
Excepting the brief ascendancy of the anti-Masonic 
clique, which could hardly be called a political 
party at all, Vermont has remained steadfast to the 
National Republican party and to its successors. 
Political overturns and ups and downs have formed 
no part of its subsequent history. The only politi- 
cal changes have been that the dominant force has 
been known from time to time by different names. 
It has added new issues born of new events to 
the old doctrines of the tariff, internal improve- 
ments and the constitution which the Federalists 



136 THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

held ; and the minority, cHnging with equal stead- 
fastness to the doctrines of Smith and Galusha, 
has in like manner undero;one some chans^es under 
the stress of new questions and altered conditions. 
Such instances of political consistency are rare in 
the stories of the States. 

The War of 181 2 had been an ever-present 
menace of disaster to Vermont so long as it lasted, 
but very little real damage had been done. The 
British gained no foothold in the State and there 
were no such Indian outrages and forced levies 
of horses and forage as made Burgoyne's march 
memorable. But hot upon the heels of war came 
an enemy whose ravages w^re far more destructive 
of property and the cause of not insignificant 
human want and misery. The famous cold sum- 
mer of 181 6 was especially vigorous in Vermont 
where the limit between spring thaw and autumn 
frost is at best comparatively short. The crops 
were an utter failure, the winter closed in extraordi- 
narily early, and a large proportion of the people 
literally faced starvation until the lengthening 
days brought some relief from the cold and gave 
promise of another harvest. The summer of 181 7 
was an improvement upon the preceding one, 
though by no means an average year in produc- 
tiveness. Since then the earth has failed not to 
reward the labors of the husbandmen, and the 



THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 1 37 

State has never again passed through such a 
season of dire distress. 

The life of the people went on simply and natu- 
rally from year to year, and not till 1824 was a 
more exciting topic of conversation furnished than 
the memory of the cold summer. In that year 
Lafayette, the friend of Washington and the bene- 
factor of the young Republic, visited America 
and passed through a series of popular ceremonials 
of welcome such as the country had never before 
seen. 

The time of his coming, just at the close of 
the era of good feeling, was auspicious. Men 
of all shades and no shade of political belief 
had a kind word and a huzza for the old French 
patriot; women held up their babies for him to 
touch or kiss, and delighted throngs of all ages 
and sexes everywhere gathered to meet him. Ver- 
mont had the especial honor of Lafayette's pres- 
ence in the State on the Fourth of July. On that 
day he was met at Windsor by the Governor and 
a large number of citizens, who greeted him with 
an address and cheered his reply to the echo. 

The veterans of the war of independence and the 
children from the schools marched in procession 
before the distinguished visitor; the day was 
made memorable with public ceremonies. General 
Lafayette quite won the hearts of the Vermonters 



138 THE PARTIES DIVIDE. 

by securing the release from jail of General Barton, 
a veteran who had been imprisoned for debt in the 
common jail at Danville and by laying the corner 
stone of the new building of the University of 
Vermont, the old one having been destroyed by 
fire. 

Thus the first quarter of the nineteenth century 
closed for Vermont in the midst of profound 
peace and prosperity. The next was to witness 
changes more mighty in the State and nation 
than human imagination could then have con- 
ceived. Let us pause on the threshold of the 
vast social and industrial developments which were 
to accompany and follow the coming of the canal, 
the railway and the telegraph, and inquire what 
manner of people they were who lived in Vermont 
in the " orood old times." 



CHAPTER VI. 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 




HE first half-century 
after the settlement 
of Vermont was the 
homespun age of the 
' State. Her people 
were the sturdy fron- 
tiersmen of the time, 
livino- remote from the 
civilization of the sea- 
coast and skilled in all 
self-reliant arts. It is difficult, indeed, to conceive of 
the variety and number of occupations then practiced 
in every household. In addition to those never-ending 
tasks which go by the comprehensive name of house- 
work, the women spun, wove, knit, sewed, dipped can- 
dles and helped in the rude work out-of-doors. Their 
clothes were home-made. They grew flax ; they 
raised sheep for wool and geese for down ; they rotted, 
braked, hatcheled, spun and wove their flax into 
linen; they put wool through processes almost as 
complex and laborious ere it emerged as the stout, 

139 



140 HOME SPUN FOLK. 

durable homespun. The trousseau of the bride, 
with its quilts and counterpanes, its store of stout 
cloth, and yards upon yards of fine linen, was 
largely the work of her own fair hands. The cloth- 
ing of the family came from these stores of wool 
and flax, supplemented in winter by the skins of 
animals. Gowns of silk or calico were luxuries to 
which it was within the province of all to aspire, 
but to which few attained. The men and boys, be- 
side the work of the farms, were by turns carpen- 
ters, butchers, masons, woodsmen, coopers, hunters, 
or even furniture - makers and cobblers. They 
sat upon home-made chairs or settles; in houses 
reared by their own hands, they ate upon home- 
hewn tables from pewter or wooden dishes with 
horn or pewter spoons or wooden ladles. Silver 
was not the precious heirloom of all families nor 
was it always for daily use even by those who had 
it. The leather of their shoes was home-raised 
calfskin, cured at home or tanned "on shares" 
at the nearest tannery. Their mittens were knit 
of wool and over these they usually wore outer 
ones of yellow buckskin rudely shaped and sewn 
toQ^ether with buckskin thono-,s or "waxed end." 
Often they made from the same in\-aluable mate- 
rial moccasins after the Indian fashion, the ideal 
footwear for warmth and comfort. When the 
weather permitted, no shoes at all were worn by 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 141 

the young of both sexes, and not always by their 
elders. The lads who used to drive in the cows 
to be milked on frosty mornings warmed their 
chilled feet on the ground where the cattle had been 
lying. Even now it is not so many years since, in 
many parts of rural New England, it was accounted 
the height of elegance for pupils to walk barefoot 
to the schoolhouse door, and there put on their 
shoes, while dispensing altogether with any foot- 
covering was even more common. Economy which 
no one thought a cause for shame was the undevi- 
ating rule ; thrift and industry were almost the alter- 
native of starvation ; and none starved. 

Even the children's toys, for the children were 
not made dull by all work and no play, were of 
ingenious home contrivance. The sleds were 
made of wood by the boys or by their fathers ; 
as a rule they were built in exact imitation of the 
bigger ox-sleds — cleft tongue, heavy beams, wooden 
shoes and all. The girls' dolls were faint reflections 
of the human likeness rudely fashioned from rags, 
with undecided features done in ink or charcoal. 
Then there were skates bound on with long buck- 
skin thongs, and bows of hickory with cat-tail flags 
or feathered rods for arrows. There was hunting 
and trapping for those old enough for such sport ; 
there was the digging of sweet flagroot in the spring, 
the gathering of nuts in the fall, the climbing of 



142 HOMESPUN FOLK. 

trees, the wrestling or ball playing at all seasons. 
There was plenty of sport even in the midst of the 
hard home-work. 

In the more serious occupations of the elders 
many peculiarities were due to the scarcity and 
cost of iron in all its forms, and the abundance 
of wood and leather. Their buckets were of wood, 
with bent wooden handles fastened on by wooden 
pins. Smaller buckets were lifted by one of the 
staves which was some inches longer than its 
fellows and terminated in a rounded handle. For 
wagons they had at first no need. Their sleds 
were home-made and were of wood even to the 
shoes, which were fastened on with wooden pins. 
Nails, which were wrought by the blacksmith's 
hand, were quite expensive and were naturally 
reserved for only the indispensable uses. 

The frames of houses and barns were always 
pinned, not spiked, together; wooden pins were 
used to fasten the boards to the posts of fences ; 
and even, in very early times, to attach shingles to 
the roofs or sides of buildings. The latches and 
hino-es of doors and the fastenino'S of barns were 
of wood. Yet the most important of the many 
uses of this invaluable material was that suggested 
by the great open fireplaces up whose yawning 
mouths the flames went roaring of a cold winter 
nis^ht, while in the radiant circle of its lio-ht sat 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 



143 



the father of the family with his bullet mold and 
bar of lead, or perhaps with the dish of melted 
tallow which he was rubbing upon the boots of the 
entire household ; within the genial glow of the 
o-reat fire o-athered, too, all the family — the son 
with his traps and with his book, the mother with 
her needle and the daughter with her knitting. 













THE SINGING SCHOOL. 



Winter was indeed the chief season of the year. 
The summer was passed in felling trees which often 
had been better left unfelled, in pulling stumps, 
burnino- wood for charcoal and harvestino- the 
crops by the slow and laborious process of the 
sickle and the scythe. Autumn's sounds were 



144 HOMESPUN FOLK. 

the pounding of the flails and the rustle of the 
corn as it was husked. But when the frost came 
and the snow covered the ground there were 
entirely new duties awaiting the settler. The 
latter half of November and the first weeks of 
December were " butchering time," for then meat 
could be frozen solid and kept for weeks or months 
with but little care. The pigs which had been grow- 
ing all summer for this occasion, were slaughtered 
and cut up, the hens were sentenced to the block 
and the fat bullocks and heifers yielded up their 
lives. 

Butchering time brought a host of occupations 
in its train for the " women folks." There were 
sausages and head-cheese to make, lard and tallow 
to try out, candles tr mold or dip and brine barrels 
to prepare for pork. By the time that all these 
operations were finished, and when the snow had 
covered a little deeper the surface of the ground, 
the year's marketing was to be done. The mart of 
the Western towns was Troy, of the Eastern ones 
Boston. 

Great sleds were loaded with bags of wheat, 
with pork and poultry, butter and cheese, potash, 
maple sugar and honey, with linen, woollen yarn, 
mittens, stockings and other products of the farm or 
household. Drawn by one, two, or three yoke of 
oxen they went creaking and swaying along the 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 1 45 

country roads to town, the teamster perched a-top 
of his load when all went well, or running alongside 
to o-uide his team at difficult turn-outs. 

Usually several of these sleds went together, 
for the sake of company and of ready assistance 
in case of need. The coming of one of these 
caravans into a quiet Massachusetts town at the 
close of a winter's day, freighted with the produce and 
burdened with the errands of half a township, must 
have been a stirring sight. The cracking of whips, 
the shouts to the oxen, and the straining and 
creaking of the great sleds were welcome sounds 
to the ears of innkeepers and to all people who de- 
lighted in good company. 

Not unfrequently a clergyman was of the party, 
drivino[ his own sled loaded with his household 
wares, or in his stead a deacon or two to restrain 
profanity or unseemly conduct. Wholesome mirth 
was never interfered with nor, it must be confessed, 
was the frequent tendency to over-much tippling. 
For, when the hard day's work was done, when 
the teamsters gathered about the tavern fire to 
spend a few hours before going to bed in prepa- 
ration for the morrow's early start greasing their 
boots, setting all in readiness and chatting as they 
worked about the day's haps and mishaps, then 
the wagging tongues were apt to be loosened and 
the chilled bodies thawed into a glow by generous 



146 HOMESPUN FOLK. 

sips from jug or pitcher as it went the rounds filled 
with hard cider or with Medford rum. In the 
"good old days" of Vermont's earl}^ statehood 
there had been no temperance reform either in the 
State or out of it. 

In the New England Farmer of 1831 appeared a 
letter from Henry Stevens of Barnet, Vt., giving 
the year's produce and the stock of five farmers of 
that town who, he said, were about to start for 
Boston to market a portion of their crops. The 
letter which has been reprinted in several of the 
newspapers of the State, continues : 



W' illiam Bachop has 45 acres of mowing, 22 of tillage and 45 of pasture, 
valued at $1699. He has four oxen, 17 cows, 20 other cattle, 12 horses, 
62 sheep, 10 fat hogs, seven shoats ; has 65 tons of hay, 90 bushels wheat, 
275 bushels oats, 175 bushels corn, 12 bushel beans, 900 bushels of potatoes ; 
has for market 2500 pounds of pork and 1950 pounds butter. 

Cloud Harvey has 30 acres of mowing, 15 of tillage and 30 of pasturage, 
valued at $372, exclusive of house and lot ; has two oxen, 14 cows, seven 
horses, 28 sheep, six fat hogs, eight shoats; has 35 tons hay, 150 bushels 
wheat, 300 of oats. So of corn, two of beans and 500 of potatoes ; has for 
market 1500 pounds of pork and 1300 pounds of butter. 

Moses Bouce has 14 acres of mowing, 34 of tillage, 29 of pasture, 
valued at $968 ; has seven cows, five other cattle, six horses, 24 sheep, 
eight fat hogs, four shoats ; has 21 tons hay, 60 bushels wheat, 75 of oats, 
50 of corn, five of beans, 523 of potatoes, 12 of turnips and 50 pounds of 
flax, and has for market 1600 pounds of pork and 600 pounds of butter. 

William Shearer has 23 acres of mowing, 13 of tillage and 40 of pasturage, 
valued at $600; has six oxen, seven cows, iS other cattle, six horses, 38 sheep, 
10 fat hogs, four shoats ; cuts 35 tons hav, 35 bushels wheat, 300 of oats. 
So of corn, six of barlev, two of beans and 400 of potatoes ; has 1600 pounds 
pork, 350 pounds of butter. 

William Warder, jr., has 26 acres of mowing. i50of tillage, 20 of pasture, 
valued at $414; has two oxen, six cows, 12 other cattle, four horses, 18 sheep, 
nine fat hogs and five shoats; has for market 1700 pounds of pork and 500 
pounds of butter. 



HOMESPUN FOLK. lA^"] 

These figures are not to be considered common 
by any means. They were given with the express 
purpose of inducing New England farmers to move 
to Vermont instead of Michigan, or to stay in 
Vermont if already there. They may be taken as 
representing farming in the State at its best under 
the old conditions. But they do at least cast some 
light upon the nature of the products most in favor 
in the days when farmers found a profit in hauling 
their wares to a market two hundred miles away 
and selling them at prices considerably below those 
of the present home markets. 

By the time the pork and the potash and other 
wealth of the soil had been exchanged for powder, 
axes and the few staples of commerce which were 
needed, the winter was well begun. The remainder, 
with the month of February as its culmination, 
was given over to gayeties such as no other season 
could witness. The young and old attended parties 
and meetings of all kinds ; they visited distant 
friends, a whole family crowding into the big ox 
sled ; they went to singing-school and learned to 
quaver " China " and to sound the harmonies of 
" Mear," the young men seeing the maidens home 
v/hen the moon had risen. Need it be added that 
it was the time of the year more sacred to courtship 
than was even the spring.? Then, to most advan- 
tage and with greatest opportunities of leisure, did 



148 HOMESPUN FOLK. 

the future wise men of the State con their books 
by the great blazing fires. By day there was always 
the wood-pile to replenish for another year ; or when 
this was done the logs were to be got out for the 
saw-mill, until at last the lengthening days started 
the sap in the rock maples. Then the sugar-makers 
— their descendants have learned better — cut cruel 
eashes in the bark of the trees, stuck chips in the 
lower corners to guide the sap and set wooden 
trouo-hs or buckets to catch it as it fell. 

The boiling of the syrup was done in an open 
kettle hung by a logging chain from the butt 
end of a strong pole resting in a notched upright. 
There was much waste of fuel in this boiling out 
of doors, a matter not always considered then. 
The sap was constantly watched ; when it showed 
a tendency to boil over its foaming rise was 
checked by dipping into it a piece of pork or a 
green hemlock bough. The red gleam of the fire 
did not die out till late at night, and its light 
served the double purpose of aiding the work of 
the boiler and enabling him to study his algebra 
or well-thumbed grammar. The sugaring season 
was one of hard work and homely joys. When it 
was over, the spring plowing and seeding soon 
began the round of another year. 

Teaming was almost entirely done with oxen, 
and in winter. Most of the roads were bad until 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 149 

the snow had leveled them ; they were in fact often 
but bridle paths along which no wheeled vehicle 
could pass. Grain was carried to mill on horseback 
or upon the shoulder, the doctor, the clergyman and 
the lawyer made their rounds in the saddle ; on 
Sunday those who could not walk went to church 
on horseback. Not until the beginning of the 
present century were double wagons used to any 
great extent, their place in farm work being sup- 
plied even in summer by sledges. Single road 
wagons came a decade or so later. Up to that 
time women made long journeys on horseback to 
the towns of Massachusetts or Connecticut, carry- 
ing the youngest child in arms. 

Where means of transit were so primitive, the 
bulkier crops could not be marketed to much 
advantage. It was this fact that forced Ver- 
monters to feed their grain to pigs and cattle and 
to market the latter. To transport the grain crop 
itself would have been impossible, but pork could 
be hauled and cattle driven at comparatively light 
expense. The southwestern corner of the State, 
which was near water communication at Troy, did 
indeed, up to 1825, raise quantities of wheat for the 
New York market. This yield in bread-stuffs en- 
joyed a reputation like that of Western New York 
thirty years ago or that of Dakota later; but the 
ravages of the Hessian fly and the competition of 



150 HOMESPUN FOLK. 

broader acres put an end to the industry, and for 
almost half a century the State has not produced 
enough wheat to feed its own people. 

The making of potash, pearl ash and " black 
salts" was in the early times a considerable source 
of revenue. The ashes from fireplaces and logging- 
heaps were carefully saved ; they were first leached 
and the lye boiled down to a rude potash. This 
by refinement became the pearl ash of commerce. 
Thousands of acres of valuable timber were destroyed 
in this wasteful manufacture. Charcoal burning- 
was equally destructive, and to get hemlock bark 
for the tanners still more slaughter of the forests 
was necessary. 

The log cabin period did not last so long as in 
some other States, since water power was plentiful 
and saw-mills were everywhere built at the time of 
settlement. But through the years of hardest strug- 
gle with the wilderness the picturesque log huts 
sheltered many a family and gave way but slowly 
to their clapboard successors. Long after the saw- 
mills were doing their useful work it was still the 
custom to rive shingles out of cedar or pine 
"bolts" and laboriously finish them with the draw- 
shave, a few hundred a day. There was a limited 
market for these and for ash hoops and barrel 
staves. The raising of V\'ool was greatly encouraged 
by the tariff of 1828, and by the opening of the 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 1 53 

Champlain Canal. From this latter event the dairy 
interests of the State received o-reat encourao-ement. 

Manufactures were for many years crude and 
few. Starch factories were early built to make 
an outlet for the potato crop, which was too bulky 
to transport to market. Fulling mills for finishing- 
domestic woollen cloth were common; smelting 
furnaces began to work the iron of the State be- 
fore the first years of the present century. Boat- 
building became an important art with the opening of 
steam navigation on Lake Champlain in 1808, just 
one year after Fulton's Clermont ascended the 
Hudson. Until the opening of the canal the quar- 
ries of the State, since so rich and promising, lan- 
guished for lack of transportation facilities. 

Wild animals were at first numerous. Venison 
agreeably varied the monotony of salt pork in 
the settler's bill of fare and the rivers were well- 
stocked with fish. Noxious animals troubled the 
settlers greatly, by making havoc among their 
flocks and herds, but did not often assail people 
except under the provocation of extreme hunger. 
In the early days of Bennington Catherine Mason 
was killed by wolves while on her way home from 
an evening's merry-making. During the Revolu- 
tionary War as Captain Stephen Goodrich was 
hurrying to a place of safety on a lonely night 
journey, he encountered these assassins of the forest. 



154 HOMESPUN FOLK. 

and escaped death only by incessantly flashing 
powder in the pan of his musket. Catamounts 
and bears were among the enemies of the early 
settlers, but soon became rare, though occasional 
specimens are still seen. The fur-bearing animals, 
the mink, otter, musk-rat, beaver and fox, were 
plentiful and added somewhat to the resources of 
the State. 

The gloom of the woods, the hard conditions 
of life, the danger from wild beasts, the serious 
aims and occupations of the people were favorable 
to grave reflections and religious steadfastness. 
From far and near the people on Sunday gathered 
to the church, where they sat in their pews and 
listened to healthy doctrine in liberal measure. 
For the most part the services were simple and 
wholesome, but religious vas^aries were not uncom- 
mon in the early part of the century, perhaps as 
a natural reaction from the irreligion so much 
affected at the time of the French Revolution. 
One of these Q-rew under other skies into the 
famous system of Mormonism. Others died a 
natural death, meeting little encouragement from 
the hard common-sense of the people. The leading 
denomination was the Congregationalist, though 
others were vigorous, and increased even more 
ra])idly in numbers. 

The church buildincrs, of whatever denomination, 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 1 55 

were plain and unpretentious structures usually of 
wood. They were not large, had high-backed pews, 
and lofty pulpits from which the Word was preached 
morning and afternoon. In winter their fireless 
rigor was alleviated only by the foot-stoves which, 
filled with live coals, were brought to church, and 
by thick and warm clothing. There was at first 
no instrumental music, but there were always strong 
and clear voices to lead the rest in hearty con- 
gregational singing. Round about each church 
were scattered the graves of those of the con- 
Sfre^ations who had orone before. 

Schools and newspapers came to these new com- 
munities almost as soon as the churches. Two 
vigorous colleo-es were founded in 1800, and before 
that time schools and academies had long been in 
beneficent operation. The first newspaper was 
founded in 1778, at Westminster. It was short- 
lived. In 1783 the Vermont Gazette or Freeman's 
Depository was founded at Bennington. It lived 
considerably more than half a century. The 
Windsor Journal, still living, claims the same 
date. The Rutland Herald dates back to 1794, 
the Montpelier Watchman to 1806, the Danville 
North Star to 1807, the Montpelier Argus to 18 19, 
the Burlington Free Press to 1827, the St. Albans 
Messenger to 1833, the Brattleborough Phoenix to 
1837, the Middlebury Register to 1836. All of these 



156 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 



are still published. Wherever newspapers were 
printed, books were made. Bennington and Bur- 
lington, Montpelier and Brattleborough have 
always been centres for the publication of more 
or less ambitious works. The industry was well 
established at the beginning of the present cent- 
ury. Libraries were early founded in the large 
towns. One was established in 1797 in Pittsfield, 
which illustrated to posterity the value in which 
good books were held and the detestation of their 
abuse by adopting the following scale of fines for 
damaged volumes: 



1st. For each blot or entire obscuration of print of 
the superficial area of one lialf inch square and 
so in proportion for any other dimention . 12 cents 

2d. For each grease spot of like dimenti(jn . . 8 cents 

3d. For every blur ....... 3 cents 

4th. For every leaf folded down .... 6 cents 

5th. P'or each Tear in the print of one half inch and so 

in proportion . . . . . . . 12 cents 



The political, like the religious, domestic and 
social characteristics of the times were simple, 
direct and sincere. Public office was a public trust. 
Two of the great occasions of the year — more im- 
portant indeed than any except " training day" — 
were freeman's meeting in September, as election 
dav was called, and town mcetino- in March. The 
latter was by far the more important of the two 
alike in fact and in estimation. 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 



157 



This notable assemblage of freemen, a lineal de- 
scendant of the Saxon witenagemote, settled, as it 
still does, all questions of town government. It 
held the purse-strings and made each year the 
necessary appropriations. It authorized new enter- 
prises by vote, and elected the town officers. The 
money of the people was economically spent, for 
every citizen was well informed upon town affairs, 
and the public officers were held to a strict account- 
ability. It was a system which impressed all the 
citizens with a sense of their personal responsi- 
bilities ; it bred politicians in numbers and states- 
men not a few. 

Men like Chipman, Seymour, Bradley and Pren- 
tiss were taught in the 
school of the town meet- 
ing. Young men prof- 
ited by the free discus- 
sion and impartial de- 
cision of affairs and 
carried their Yankee 
ways to the newly form- 
ing States in the West. 
Not the least amono- the 
influences which have 
helped Vermont from 
the earliest time up to 
the present must be borrowing fire. 




158 HOMESPUN FOLK. 

reckoned the simple democracy of its local govern- 
ment. This, by bringing the decision of the most 
important questions to the direct vote of the people, 
has acted at once as a safeguard and a means of 
political education. 

Neighbors were neighbors in the homespun days. 
They appreciated those kindly acts of mutual helpful- 
ness which make life sweet and wholesome. Before 
matches were invented, they " borrowed fire " of one 
another, running briskly from house to house with the 
smoking brands. The buckskin thong which served 
as a latch-string always hung outside the door, and 
any one was free to enter. Tools served a neighbor 
as well as the owner, and there was always a chance 
to return a favor in kind. There were " bees " on 
all possible pretexts and occasions. Logging bees 
cleared fields like magic; husking bees served for 
rare frolics on autumn evenings ; chopping parties 
made light work of the minister's woodpile. 

Of afternoons quilting bees brought together the 
matrons of a neighborhood who talked as they 
worked, sometimes of other things than the intricate 
patterns before them. Strips and squares of brightly 
colored cloth were sewed together in various com- 
plex figures, bearing such fanciful names as Albums, 
Blazing Stars, Baskets, Twin Sisters, Irish Chains, 
Windmills and Sunflowers. When enough of these 
had been collected, the neighbors were invited to 



HOMESPUN FOLK. 1 59 

help finish the quilts. Each quilt was stretched 
upon four poles ; these were rolled inward as the 
work progressed toward the centre. The stitches 
which the good woman employed in quilting were 
as complex and various as the patterns themselves. 

This seems now to have been work with little 
purpose, yet at least it served the purpose of bring- 
ing together good friends for social enjoyment at a 
time when the formal call of a few minutes would 
have been scouted as preposterous. When a guest 
came to the household she brought her knitting 
work or sewing and stayed till nightfall, certain of 
a kindly welcome. In honor of the visit the bucket 
with its jangling chain was sunk from its high 
sweep to the bottom of the well and was brought 
up filled with clear cold water ; the pot upon its 
blackened crane, soon bubbled over the fire on the 
hearth ; the household stores were ransacked for 
good things to eat which might be brought forth 
without ostentation, but with justifiable pride in the 
housewife's foresight. 

What the quilting bee was to the women a 
" raising" was to the men. It was impossible for a 
small force to lift the ponderous bents which went 
into barns and houses, and appliances for hoisting 
them were not in common use. So when the car- 
penters had framed and fitted the parts together, 
the neighbors all came with their pikepoles; with 



l6o HOMESPUN FOLK. 

much shouting they Hfted the bents one by one 
into the air until the tenons sank to their places 
in the sill-mortises and all stood upright. Until 
the temperance revival, liquor was always served 
on such occasions and many a sturdy young man 
"shinned up" the newly hoisted bents to drive the 
pins in the braces or handle the rafters away aloft 
whose head was not so steady as it might have 
been ; deep potations were the rule, and accidents 
from this cause were not unfrequent. Occasions 
of graver import brought the people together from 
far and near. Half a township would show respect 
to the dead by its presence at a funeral or would 
gather to offer hearty congratulations to the newly- 
wedded pair. 

Life as it was lived before the days of the rail- 
road was lonely, yet to busy and contented people 
there was some compensation for the infrequent 
sight of one's fellows in the human interest their 
occasional entrance upon the field of vision excited. 
The forest is not more lonely than that wilderness 
which is called a great city. Those thought them- 
selves well off who lived near a public road where 
some one passed by almost every day. Sometimes 
it might be the postman pushing his hard-worked 
horse through spring mud or winter snow on his 
weekly trip ; sometimes it was the doctor, spurring 
to the bedside of a patient, sometimes a neighbor 



HOMESPUN POLK. l6l 

on his way to mill, sometimes the judge or the 
attorney jogging along to court with his law books 
in his saddlebags, sometimes the minister on his 
pastoral rounds. With such glimpses at the com- 
ings and goings of other people, with trips to 
church, with the training day and the interchange 
of neighborly hospitalities they were quite content. 

They were indeed good old times when people 
lived thus; better times, some say, than the railroad 
and telegraph have brought us. Yet the State to- 
day is a better State in most respects than it was. 
The temperance reform has purified it of a host of 
evils ; the diversity of industries and the introduc- 
tion of machinery have shortened the hours of 
labor; better means of communication have given 
new facilities to trade, to agriculture and to educa- 
tion ; a wiser economy has husbanded the resources 
of the people. 

The heroic spirit with which the Vermonters of 
old faced the hard conditions of their lives is worthy 
the pride and admiration of their descendants, but 
it is only a disparagement of their virtues to deny 
that they had any disadvantages to labor with. We 
may praise their pluck and energy yet need not 
covet the struggles by which these qualities were 
developed. The agencies which wrought such 
mighty changes in the State and whose influence 
we are now to consider were on the whole agencies 



1 62 HOMESPUN FOLK. 

for good. Rude beginnings are but the stepping- 
stones to progress. From hardship and from con- 
tinuous toil has success been formed. But he who 
sighs for those distant days of effort and of meagre 
facihties imagining them to be purer and more 
genuine than his own time is as unthinking as he 
is unpatriotic. Every age has ahke its responsi- 
biHties and its advantages. Not many, even of 
those whose admiration of the "good old times " is 
expressed in the loudest terms, would willingly go 
back to them and fight over again the hard battle 
that the pioneers waged w^'th the wilderness. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE GREAT WEST 




HE half-century fol- 
lowing the close of 
the Revolution was a 
season of rapid growth 
and development in 
Vermont. In 1760 
her people had been 
but a handful. In 
1790 when the first 
census was taken they 
had increased to 85,425. Thenceforward for sev- 
eral successive censuses the figures were: 1800, 
154465; 1810, 217,895; 1820, 235,966; 1830, 
280,652, In a half-century after 1830 the popu. 
lation did not increase so much by i 7,000 as in the 
single decade following the admission of the State, 
though in the Union as a whole the increase was 
marvelous. Out of that western country which 
was in 1830 a trackless waste, new States have 
been carved which have passed Vermont by in 

the race for people and for wealth. This would 

163 



164 THE GREA2' WEST. 

inevitably have been true in any case, since the 
newer States have many times the territory of Ver- 
mont, but there were special causes controlling the 
earlier and more rapid as well as the slower recent 
fjrowth of the Green Mountain State. 

In the old days following the Revolution Ver- 
mont was the West of New Enoland. Immio^ra- 

o o 

tion had been kept out of it by the wars with the 
French and Indians and somewhat impeded by the 
alarms of the Revolution; but when with the coming 
of the long peace the last obstacle to its settlement 
was removed, people from Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire and Connecticut flocked into the State, 
finding there an abundance of rich and cheap land, 
valuable timber, good advantages of church and 
school, a popular government in which all shared 
and a climate no more rigorous than that to which 
they had been accustomed. No one then supposed 
that thriving cities would one day spring up and 
vast States be developed in the valley of the Mis- 
sissippi, and even if the pioneers had been gifted 
with prophetic powers to see the future greatness of 
the land, the way to it was one of incredible hard- 
ships and of dangers not a few. Vermont possessed 
precisely the attractions which the West has since 
presented ; it profited by them as the West has done. 
As early as the beginning of the present century it 
was a source of emigration, a goal of immigration. 



THE GREAT WEST. 165 

Silas Wright, afterward to become one of New 
York's greatest governors, graduating from Middle- 
bury College shortly after the War of 181 2, followed 
the adventurous pioneers of his State into Northern 
New York, then almost a wilderness. That sec- 
tion of the Empire State was practically settled by 
Vermonters with an intermixture of people from 
the Mohawk Valley and lesser strains from other 
sources. A few years later, the sons of Vermont 
were settling in the rich valleys of Western New 
York or pushing even further toward the setting 
sun. They were the pioneers of a movement which 
in years to come was to check almost completely 
the peopling of their own State. For the present, 
however, the loss was more than made good by 
immigration. 

Just when the tide of travel to Vermont was at 
its height, the puny beginnings of a flood whose 
mighty volume in the future no one then foresaw 
began trickling through the mountain passes into 
the broad lands of the Middle West. The ordi- 
nance for the government of the Northwest Terri- 
tory was framed in 1787. That vast region which 
had in 1880 eleven million souls and which em- 
braces the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- 
gan and Wisconsin, had then but a few thousand 
venturesome inhabitants. Kentucky, the first State 
beyond the Alleghanies, was admitted to the Union 



1 66 THE GREAT WEST. 

in the same year as Vermont. Public attention was 
directed to the West by these acts and the stream 
began to slowly swell in volume. Tennessee fol- 
lowed in 1796 and Ohio in 1802, but when the War 
of 181 2 broke out and put the frontier settlements 
again in peril of the Indians there were not more 
than one third so many people in the entire region 
beyond the mountains as now live in Ohio alone. 

For migration was no easy task in those days ; it 
was full of delays, of dangers and difficulties. The 
streams of travel flowed along the rivers or sought 
outlets through the mountain passes. Pennsylvania 
and Virginia were great colonizing States and the 
former of these seems to have sent to the West as 
many of her children as all the New England States 
together. They followed the old military roads to 
Pittsburg and thence floated down the Ohio to their 
more or less chstant destinations in flat-boats 
whereon were loaded their household possessions, 
their families and often their cattle. Long and 
hard as was this winding way, it was easy by com- 
parison with that which must be followed by the 
uneasy spirits of the Eastern States. These might 
seek the Hudson and follow it to Albany, ascend 
the Mohawk with its frequent falls and rapids, 
strike the lake at Oswego and thus continue on 
their way West; they might push straight across 
the State to P)uffalo and there embark ; or, quite 



THE GREAT WEST 



167 



as frequently perhaps, cross New Jersey and fol- 
low the Pennsylvania trail to the Ohio Valley. 
The difificulty of the route deterred many and 
sent them to the nearer woods and mountains 
of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and to 
some extent westward by way of the St. Lawrence. 




A QUILTING BEE. 

In 1825 the Erie Canal was opened to traffic and 
an instantaneous change came over the prospects 
of the West. The opening of water communi- 
cation from the lakes to the sea was of incalculable 
benefit to the State of New York which accom- 
plished the mighty task, but its value to the West 



1 68 THE GREAT WEST. 

was even greater. It was now possible for the 
sufferer from Western fever to go by water from 
New York City to Buffalo and thence on to Lake 
Superior without vexation from muddy roads or 
adverse currents. The trip was shortened and 
cheapened ; it was rendered more endurable to 
women and children. There was something almost 
approaching the modern luxuries of travel in the 
packet boats of the day with their comfortable 
cabins, regular meals and unlimited capacity for 
stowage. 

In Northern Ohio was built up a new Connecticut; 
Northern Illinois began to receive the freedom- 
loving population which was in Lincoln's time to 
overbalance the slavery sympathizers who were 
already pouring into that State from the South ; 
Michigan and Wisconsin then became something 
more than names. Detroit awoke from its slum- 
bers ; Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toledo and 
a hundred other cities and towns sprang out of 
nothing and became thriving aspirants for future 
commercial importance. Steam power made the 
navigation of the lakes easy and certain ; it worked 
with the canal in building up the great Northwest. 
Farmers, mechanics and professional men followed 
where the hardy pioneers had sliown the way and 
laid the foundations of new commonwealths. 

Had not the youth of Vermont themselves been 



THE GREAT WEST. 1 69 

drawn into this westward tide the State would have 
continued to grow fast enough in population by 
the natural rate of increase, but the Vermonters 
bore their part in building up the new States. 
The mountains at home were more difficult of 
cultivation and the winter rigors made the hus- 
bandman's task seem less easy than on the mellow 
plains of the West. The rapid increase of popu- 
lation in the new State had occasioned a natural 
rise in the price of land and this removed one 
source of attraction which Vermont had possessed. 

In 1830 many of its farms were held at a higher 
value than now, and the prospect of winning new 
homes among the cheaper acres of the West lured 
by the thousand from their native soil, young men 
and women who were to carry home ways and 
home influences to be the leaven of new common- 
wealths. The old post road from Bennington to 
Troy and the canal from Whitehall westward were 
crowded with Vermonters seekinof to travel the 
easy new road to that bounteous West of which 
they had heard such marvelous tales. 

It requires no fanciful imagination to con- 
ceive that the opening of the Erie Canal was 
an agency which did more than almost any other 
to curb the power of slavery. Hitherto in the 
migration to the West there had been a far 
greater element of slavery sympathizers from the 



170 THE GREAT WEST. 

South than of Northern men, and these settled 
largely in the southern portion of the Northwestern 
Territory lying along the Ohio River. With the 
opening of the canal, Northern men began to cross 
the mountains in even greater numbers until they 
formed a majority in every Northwestern State ; 
as much by weight of influence as of numbers they 
made that section in the dark days of 1861 as 
loyal as New England itself. But in the work of 
peopling the new States the canal was only the 
pioneer. Great as were its accomplishments it 
was followed, aided and in time almost superseded 
by an agent even more powerful. 

In the year 1830 the venerable Charles Carroll 
of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, a patriot whose great age, command- 
ing personality and prominence in the history of 
his State and country made him a fitting link 
between the old order of things and the new, was 
the central figure in a significant ceremonial. 

The day was big with import, portending results 
in the near future more vast than any one then had 
dreamed of seeing realized. It was the celebration 
of the opening of the first section of the Baltimore 
and Ohio railroad to traffic. The white-headed 
old man whose boyhood, youth and early man- 
hood had passed under the king, who had sat in 
the council which guided the nation to its deliver- 



THE GREAT WEST. 171 

ance and who so well remembered when all the 
land beyond the Alleghanies was an unexplored 
wilderness, stood up among the younger men to 
deliver the chief oration, bidding the new enter- 
prise godspeed. A few months later in the same 
year, Lord Brougham, himself almost as much a 
figure of the past, performed a like service for 
the Liverpool and Manchester railway, the first 
completed steam line of the world. 

It almost passes belief, looking upon the mighty 
railroad systems of the present time, that they 
should have been developed within a trifle more 
than half a century, and that men not yet old can 
remember when there was not a single steam car 
on the continent. 

Measured by later standards those early rail- 
roads were rude and primitive. The passenger 
coaches were something like a Concord thorough- 
brace in general appearance ; the engine was a tiny 
affair of uncouth shape, too small to afford the 
engineer a shelter from sun or rain. The speed 
was about that of a smart carriage horse. The 
first rails were of wood with thin straps of iron 
spiked along the top, and it was some time before 
these were replaced by rails of solid iron, which 
were in turn to give way to heavier ones of steel. 
It was not supposed that the locomotives could 
pull a load up a hill. The first sections of the 



172 THE GREAT WEST 

New York Central were built on nearly a dead 
level ; on what is now the heavy grade near Albany, 
was a steep incline up and down which the engine- 
less cars were run by cable and pulley. The Bald- 
wins of Philadelphia announced by advertisement 
that their steam engine, the first but not the last 
by some thousands of their construction, would be 
run on fair days, but that when it rained horses 
would be used. When the sun shone multitudes 
came to see the marvel. 

Shrewd men saw, after a very brief trial of the 
new motor, that the world's heavy traffic would 
henceforth be carried by steam power. Almost 
simultaneously in all the more thickly settled por- 
tions of the Union rails were laid down, often 
against emphatic protests and in the face of solemn 
warnings; locomotives of constantly increasing 
power and cars of ever niore generous dimensions 
carried more and more of the freight of the countr}^ 
Boston, Albany and Buffalo were soon connected 
b}' lines of railroad reaching from the great lakes 
to the sea. Before 1840 a road had been built 
from Boston to Concord, and Vermont roads were 
soon stretched out to meet it. 

The road from Burlington to Windsor was 
opened for traffic in 1S49, from Rutland to Bur- 
lington in the same year, from Rutland to White- 
hall in 1850, from Essex Junction to Rouse's Point 




> 




^\*i 





THE GREAT WEST. 1 75 

in 1850 and from White River Junction to St. 
Johnsbury in 185 1. These roads gave Vermont 
outlets in three directions : to Ogdensburg via 
Rouse's Point, to Albany via Whitehall and to 
Boston via White River Junction. These systems 
were in time consolidated under the management 
of the Vermont Central Company. This now 
has practical control of the railroads of the State. 
Other lines followed promptly enough and within 
a comparatively few years the main railroad 
arteries of the State were reasonably complete as 
they have since remained. Only short connecting 
spurs or branches have been found necessary for 
some years or are likely to be for years to come. 

It is a curious and interesting fact that the main 
railroad lines of Vermont follow closely the old 
Indian trails — down the east shore of the lake, 
along the Lower Connecticut, up the Onion River, 
or across the State diagonally by the Winooski 
and White Rivers. The Indians were o-ood en- 
gineers; with their unaided eyes and instinct they 
solved their engineering problems in a manner with 
which the level and chain can find no fault. 

Such an entire revolution in the transit systems 
of the country could not but mightily affect the 
course and manner of its development. The stream 
of Western migration which had begun to flow 
feebly toward the close of the last century, which 



176 THE ORE A 2' WEST. 

had deepened and broadened its current when the 
Erie Canal was opened, now became a mighty tor- 
rent. The mid-Western States were built up with 
marvelous and unexampled rapidity ; those of the 
East felt the effects of a constant drain upon their 
population, while immigrants from Europe took the 
places of those who had gone. 

It was not alone the growth of the West which 
now began to call away the rosy-cheeked country 
boys from their homes. The development of the 
great cities of the lakes and the seaboard was a 
natural consequence of the growth of railroad 
traffic, of the export and import trade and of man- 
ufactures. The leading business men of New 
York, Boston and Chicago, the merchants, lawyers, 
manufacturers and railway magnates, in unnum- 
bered instances have been those who were the 
Yankee farmers' boys of the last generation. 

Both movements — the exodus to the West and 
the tendency to flock to the large cities — militated 
against the continued growth of Vermont in wealth 
and population; she had no seaports or other large 
cities and few advantao-es to offset the attractions 
of the new States. The census indeed showed in 
1850, 314,120 inhabitants in the State where in 
1840 there had been but 291,948; this considerable 
increase, however, was undoubtedly due in part to 
the checking and chilling influence of the panic 



THE GREAT WEST. 177 

of 1837 upon the Western States and upon the 
o-reat cities. In the next decade — which included 
the o-old excitement in Cahfornia and the flockinof 
of freemen into Kansas to save her from the fate 
of slavery — Vermont's population grew less than 
one thousand larger. In i860 the census count 
showed but 315,098 inhabitants. 

Yet the State's prosperity did not suffer in all 
directions from the new modes of transit. Three 
years before the opening of the Erie Canal, a canal 
had been opened from the Hudson to Lake Cham- 
plain. This proved of great benefit to the State by 
facilitating the marketing of its bulkier products; 
by its means and by the prompt completion of 
the main railroad arteries, industry was developed 
and trade stimulated very materially. 

In spite of the fact that population remained sta- 
tionary during the decade following the completion 
of a railroad through Vermont, considerable ad- 
vances were made in wealth, and agriculture and 
manufactures prospered as they had not done 
before. It was a time of comparatively low tariff. 
This was no more popular then than now in Ver- 
mont, yet the number of adults engaged in manu- 
factures increased from 8,445 i^^ 1850 to 10,497 '^^ 
i860; within the same period the annual value of 
manufactured products rose from $8,570,920 to 
$14,637,807. Unless the figures were grossly inac- 



178 THE GREAT WEST. 

curate, the value of manufactured goods had in- 
creased in ten years more rapidly than the number 
engaged in making them. This result may have 
been largely due to the introduction of better 
machinery and more efficient modes of production 
and to the bettered facilities for travel, observation 
and the exchange of ideas. 

Even more rapid was the advance of the quarry 
industry. This important branch of the State's 
activities practically owes its birth to the canal and 
the railroads. The first opened a market to New 
York ; the latter gave one in every direction. The 
beautiful marble of the State and its rich deposits 
of slate thus found an outlet and these deposits were 
everywhere worked by private individuals and by 
corporations whose keen competition led to the dis- 
covery of new mineral wealth before unsuspected. 
The value to the State of the industry thus begun 
has since been enormous. In 1880, of all the larger 
States only two surpassed Vermont in the value of 
their quarry products or in the capital invested. 

In agriculture the improvement following the 
canal and railroads was no less marked. Although 
the acreage of improved land did not greatly 
increase, the value of the farms of Vermont rose 
during the decade before the Civil War from sixty- 
three millions to ninety-four millions, or about fifty 
per cent., while most crops produced showed an 



THE GREAT WEST. 



179 



increase in quantity and value. Wheat continued to 
decline, but the more bulky crops — barley, oats and 
potatoes — held their own. The wool clip decreased 
somewhat, owing to the competition of Western 
wool growers, but the Vermont farmers soon dis- 
covered that they could make more money by breed- 
ing the finest sheep to sell than by raising wool 
themselves. 

It was found that sheep in milder climates tended 
to deteriorate in wool-bearing qualities unless the 
tendency was counteracted by infusions of better 
blood, and the Vermont growers of fancy sheep 
made good profits by breeding and selling very fine 
and heavy fleeced animals. The price for a single 
sheep frequently rose 
to thousands of dollars. 

After making this 
discovery the Vermont 
farmers cared very lit- 
tle for the number of 
pounds of wool they 
raised, and even less 
for the mutton they 
marketed. The hay 
crop increased greatly, 
and with it butter and 
cheese. These prod- 
ucts had been difficult 




R 



n 



i'fe 



I So THE GREAT WEST. 

of transportation under former conditions, and 
were apt to deteriorate on their slow way to mar- 
ket in hot weather. The railroad enabled dairy 
farmers to market their butter and cheese in Boston 
and in New York in the best of condition and the 
importance of the industry rapidly increased. 

In early days, when the drovers used to collect 
herds and drive them along the country roads all 
the way to market, cattle had been valued in pro- 
portion to their beef qualities, but with the growth 
of the dairy interest the milk-producing strains 
found more favor, and the grade of cattle of the 
country was improved by the intermingling with 
better stock. 

Fruit of all kinds which would bear the cli- 
mate was grown in increasing quantities where 
the soil permitted ; former methods were improved 
by study and through the competition aroused by 
the agricultural societies. The horses of Vermont 
have always borne a high reputation. The Mor- 
gan and Messenger strains have been pronounced 
unsurpassed for general purposes, and the progeny 
of Black Hawk and other noted sires proved their 
value in many capacities. Horses were sold from 
the State in considerable numbers annually, yet 
their number increased with the bettering of the 
roads, and that of working oxen has as steadily 
diminished. Where there were forty-eight thou- 



THE GREAT WEST i8i 

sand in the State in 1850, there were but forty-two 
thousand in i860 and these have decreased to less 
than fifteen thousand in 1888. The oxen had been 
very useful in the rough work of clearing the State 
and rendering it fit for cultivation, but in the actual 
processes of agriculture, the faster pace of horses 
brouQfht them more and more into favor. 

Up to the railroad epoch labor-saving farm ma- 
chinery can hardly be said to have existed, but its 
introduction greatly lessened the labors of the farm 
after 1850. The first mowing machines were more 
than twice as heavy as the improved patterns later 
in use; they were very hard upon the horses which 
pulled them, but they were a great improvement 
upon the scythe. The early horse-rakes were 
equally rude, a common pattern being a flat double 
rake of wood, which the driver, walking behind, 
overturned with much labor at each winrow, but 
the worst were a long step in advance of the hand- 
rake. The hay crop gained greatly in value when 
it became possible to cut and harvest it rapidly 
instead of allowing the last of each year's cut to 
" go to seed " and grow dead and wiry. Improved 
machinery upon the farm, as well as in the shop, 
rendered possible a much greater production in 
proportion to the numbers employed. 

A corresponding advance was made within the 
household. The domestic manufacture of wool 



1 82 THE GREAT WEST. 

declined ; the ponderous beams of the loom became 
lumber in the attics; the flax wheels and hatchels 
kept them company. Factory-made cloth took the 
place of homespun and the girls of Vermont fami- 
lies had more time to go to school. Many of 
them went to the factory towns of Massachusetts 
to work as cotton spinners, and at a time when the 
mill girls of Lowell and Lawrence were among 
the most intellectual and cultured members of their 
sex, the sharpening of wits which ensued from such 
companionship was no less valuable than the wages 
received. 

The ability to earn money always commands 
respect. There can be no doubt that the factory 
system of the New England States was in those 
days at least a blessing to the women, and in many 
ways improved their condition. Home life in Ver- 
mont also presented many changes. Machinery 
came to aid in the labors of the housekeeper, 
though to a considerably less extent than out of 
doors. Better furniture, table ware and clothing, 
more pictures and books, more pleasant surround- 
ings in many ways, were the natural results of 
increased wealth, cheapened production and new 
facilities for travel and comparison. 

To trace the effect upon Vermont of the coming 
of the canals and of the railrtmds we have followed 
its industrial development up lo the very opening 



THE GREAT WEST. 183 

of the civil war. We must now go back to the 
" era of good feeHng " and take up where we dropped 
it the story of the State. The period between the 
era of good feeling, when North and South were in 
harmony and people fondly hoped that political 
troubles were over forever in the new Republic, 
and the civil war which convulsed the nation in 
1 86 1 was one of vast importance to Vermont as 
well as to the nation at large. Let us consider 
what was happening within the State and whither 
it was tending morally and socially during the years 
whose marvelous material developments have been 
so briefly sketched. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 



THE STATE MOVASE^ 
(§V /^ONTPEUER. 




"-'"iiirf 



1 I t ^ j P !i n '' t. 




HE era of political 
good feeling was 
either too good to last 
or else a blessing of 
doubtful value. From 
whatever standpoint 
we view it — whether 
we hold with those 
philosophers who ex- 
tol the even division 
of parties as a blessing, or with those who condemn 
it as a curse — the fact that it did not last need not 
now excite so much surprise as that any one then 
seriously expected that it would last. Whether a 
popular government without party divisions would 
be desirable is hardly worth inquiring. Such a 
state of affairs is not a possibility with human 
nature constituted as it now is. The history of 
Vermont in the "thirties" shows that where better 
issues of political war are wanting people will 
divide upon questions wliich look in the retrospect 

184 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 185 

anything but worth quarreling about, and that 
poUtical controversy loses none of its bitterness 
when based upon issues of minor importance. 

The Anti-Masonic Movement originated in the 
mysterious disappearance in Western New York of 
a man named Morgan. Him the fraternity of Free 
Masons was accused of murdering or making away 
with as a punishment for revealing the secrets of 
the order. It cut a very wide swath in Vermont, 
and was more successful there than in any other 
State. The electoral vote was given in 1828 to 
Adams against Jackson. In the same year Samuel 
C. Crafts was chosen as governor by the Adams 
party to succeed the Rev. Ezra Butler who had 
served two terms. 

In the year 1830 the Anti-Masonic party put 
up for the first time a candidate of their own for 
governor. This was William A. Palmer. Gover- 
nor Crafts was the incumbent and Ezra Meech the 
Jacksonian candidate. Crafts received a plurality 
of the votes, but not a majority, and the elec- 
tion was thrown into the Assembly where Crafts 
was finally chosen. The next year the same can- 
didates ran. There was no popular election, but 
this time Palmer carried off the prize in the Legis- 
lature. Crafts was the Masonic candidate, and 
his defeat for this reason alone shows to what a 
height party feeling rose on this curious issue. 



1 86 HOME HAPPENINGS. 

Tlie prejudice against the Masons at this time 
compelled the disbandment of many of their lodges 
throughout the State, the Grand Lodge of Ver- 
mont among them. In 1832 Palmer was again 
elected by the Assembly, there being no choice at 
the polls. In this year Jackson and Clay were the 
Democratic and Whig candidates and they re- 
ceived 7,870 and 11,152 votes respectively, the 
Whigs as before, keeping ahead of the Jacksonians 
in spite of the disturbing influence of the Anti- 
Masonic party. For that party had a candidate 
for the Presidency, and a very good one, in William 
Wirt. He had a useless but substantial following 
of men who " voted in the air." He received no 
electoral votes except the seven of Vermont. Jack- 
son had 219 of the whole number and Clay forty- 
nine. It is difficult now to see precisely what the 
Anti-Masons expected Wirt to do for them if 
elected, but they were undoubtedly sincere in his 
support. 

In 1833 and 1834 Palmer was re-elected, quite 
as much because of his character as an executive 
as on account of the Anti-Masonic movement which 
fell away tremendously in the " off year" following- 
Jackson's re-election. Silas H. Jennison served as 
governor for the remainder of the decade. In 1840 
Van Buren was the successful candidate for the 
Presidency. He received in Vermont 14,037 votes ; 



HOME HAPPENINGS. - 187 

to Harrison the Whig leader were given 20,991. 
Charles Paine, John Mattocks and William Slade 
were respectively elected governors in 1840, 1843 
and 1844. The latter was the compiler of the in- 
valuable State Papers of Vermont, which contain 
so much material for the historian and student. 

The vote of the State in the important Presidential 
election of 1844 was cast as follows: Clay, Whig, 
26,770; Polk, Democrat, 18,041; Birney, Aboli- 
tionist, 3,954. The Birney vote was a new and 
portentous appearance upon the field of politics. 
The same candidate had received but three hun- 
dred and nineteen votes in 1840, and this increase 
illustrated the growth in the State of that senti- 
ment against slavery whose results a future chapter 
will chronicle. 

The years whose political character has been 
thus briefly summarized were signalized by a num- 
ber of important events affecting Vermont in com- 
mon with other States and by not a few peculiar 
to itself. The period opened with the vigorous 
agitation for a series of canals to connect the 
Connecticut and the lake. This project it is 
needless to say was not carried out. The mount- 
ain chain which extends north and south throus^h 
the State was an almost insuperable obstacle to 
such a canal. The great floods of 1828 and 1830 
caused wide-spread destruction in the Connecticut 



iS8 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 



Valle}^ and along the channels of the swollen 
streams. In the latter 3'ear fourteen people were 
swept away and drowned in the township of New 
Haven on the Otter Creek. Hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars would not have repaired the prop- 
erty loss there and elsewhere throughout the State. 










In 1S32 tlie Legislature authorized the con- 
struction of a new capitol building at Montpelier 
and appr()i)riated $2P-''^^'^ ^^^ that purpose. This 
sum was found totally insufficient for the work and 
in the end, at an expense of $140,000, a very credit- 
able State House was erected. The constitution 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 1 89 

of the State was revised and amended in 1836 and 
more radical changes made in it than at any former 
revision. The Council of Censors was retained but 
the Governor's Council was abolished and in its 
place was put a senate, with powers substantially 
the same as the corresponding body wielded in the 
other States. The members were to be chosen 
annually, were not to be less than thirty years of 
age, and their number was restricted to thirty. 
Each county was entitled to one senator; the 
remainder were apportioned among the counties 
according to their population. This apportionment 
was to be revised after each census report. The 
same constitutional change which established the 
senate gave the governor the power to veto bills 
but provided that a bare majority of both houses 
should be sufficient to pass laws over his veto. 

In the following year, 1837, the most dangerous 
financial panic which had ever yet afflicted the 
country broke in full force. It disastrously affected 
all industries in Vermont and elsewhere. The 
panic was the direct result of natural causes and 
might have been foretold for some time before- 
hand. The country, under the influence of the 
great Western migration, had expanded too rapidly 
and strained credit too severely. Money was very 
scarce in the new States and territories and the 
need of a circulating medium was in a measure 



I go HOME HAPPENINGS. 

supplied by numerous State banks which poured 
upon the country a flood of paper notes, often 
irredeemable because of the wild speculations in 
which their capital was sunk and not unfrequently 
backed by no capital whatever. 

Men were so full of abidins; faith in the future 
of their country that they were ready to put their 
money, and money borrowed from other people, 
into the craziest of schemes. Land speculation 
was almost universal. Railroads and canals were 
seriously projected which could not if completed 
have paid their running expenses for years to come. 
States were drawn into the tide and plunged reck- 
lessly into debt to promote internal improvements. 
Industry suffered w-hile speculation throve. Rents 
became high, interest on loans reached in many 
cases two or two and a half per cent, per month and 
the prices of all manner of commodities advanced 
out of all proportion to the earning power of labor- 
ing men. 

The w^heat crop of 1836 and 1837 w^as almost 
a failure and grain was imported from Europe. 
Flour rose to such a price that " bread riots " in 
New York City emphasized the danger of the day. 
The leader of one of these riots said to the noisy 
rabble who were applauding a harangue, " Let us 

go to • and offer him eight dollars a barrel for 

flour. If he refuses we will take it." In an hour 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 191 

thousands of barrels were scattered in the streets. 
The laree cities were at that time without poHce pro- 
tection ; the " bread mobs " were ahnost unopposed 
in their work of destruction. Strikes, till then 
unknown in the country, became common. Social- 
istic doctrines for the alleviation of the evils from 
which the people suffered found ready believers 
and agitation of impracticable schemes of social 
reform was rife. 

The commercial distresses were complicated by 
political differences upon fiscal matters. The Bank 
of the United States had in 1791 been chartered 
by the Federalists for twenty years. The limita- 
tion expired in 181 1 and the Republicans who were 
then in power, refused to renew the charter. In 
181 6, however, the Republicans found it necessary 
to re-establish the Bank and since that time it had 
fallen again into the hands of the Federalists whose 
naturally it was. In 1832, the Democrats being 
then in power, the friends of the Bank began to 
advocate the renewal of its charter, though it was 
not to expire until 1836, and passed a bill for that 
purpose which President Jackson vetoed. 

Jackson's re-election caused the directors of the 
Bank to see very plainly that all hope of securing 
a renewal of the charter was out of the question. 
Naturally they began to contract and realize upon 
their loans for the purpose of settling up their 



192 HOME HAPPENINGS. 

affairs. Benton and others have held that this was 
done purposely to create a panic and compel a 
renewal of the charter; the possibility of this 
result may have influenced the directors, for much 
distress was caused by their action, but it was nev- 
ertheless justified by sound business considerations. 

In 1833 Jackson issued a circular to the agents 
of the Government directing them thenceforth to 
deposit no money with the bank or its branches, 
while the money then in its custody was gradually 
to be withdrawn to pay current expenses. From 
that time the bank daily prepared to go out of 
business. This it actually did some time before the 
expiration of its charter. It was afterwards char- 
tered as a State bank by Pennsylvania, but went 
finally out of business in 1839. 

Whatever may have been the faults of the Bank 
of the United States politically, it was at least sol- 
vent. It was well managed financially and exercised 
something of a good influence in a day when it was 
sadly needed. Things went on from bad to worse. 
The currency of the State banks was never very 
eood ; it was often w^orthless. Little of the best of 
it would circulate at par fifty miles from the place 
of issue ; trade was hampered and merchants put 
to no end of annoyance by perpetual losses from 
bad money and l^y the elaborate system which they 
were forced to adopt for its detection. This was 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 1 93 

the situation when President Jackson in 1836 
directly precipitated the panic by issuing a circular 
to the agents of the Government, directing them to 
accept nothing but gold and silver in payment for 
the public lands or of customs dues. This action at 
the close of Jackson's term brought the panic upon 
Van Buren, his successor, at the very opening of 
his administration. 

The storm broke in March. So violent was it 
that a strong deputation of bankers went to Wash- 
ington to beseech Van Buren to withdraw the specie 
circular. This he firmly refused to do and by the 
tenth of May all the banks had suspended specie 
payment. The year which followed was one of 
total collapse in the business world and of great 
suffering among the people generally. Special 
bankruptcy laws were passed for the relief of the 
situation and after a year of sitting in sackcloth 
and ashes for the financial sins of a decade, the 
country was ready to resume business again. In- 
solvent merchants had compounded with their 
creditors ; these again had compromised with other 
creditors until the swollen scale of prices sank to 
the normal. The tense situation was practically 
closed by the action of the New York banks on the 
fifteenth of May, 1838, in resuming specie payment, 
an example which was soon followed by all the 
other banks in the vicinity which were still alive. 



194 HOME HAPPENINGS. 

President Jackson has been often blamed by his 
political opponents for causing the panic by the 
issuance of the specie circular, even as the Bank of 
the United States had been charged with inducins: 
the less serious stringency of 1833 by curtailing its 
loans ; but neither the one nor the other caused the 
panic. Jackson's circular though its occasion, was 
no more than that. The real cause was the feverish 
speculation of the preceding years. 

The suffering of Vermont by the panic was en- 
tirely out of proportion to its responsibility. It 
had not been one of the chief sinners against finan- 
cial laws, yet it is probable that the State fared far 
better than the Western States on the one hand and 
the great money centers on the other. The failure 
of the wheat crop was very disastrous, for it had 
been up to that time one of the most important 
sources of wealth ; but speculation was much less 
feverish than in the newer portions of the country, 
and the Legislature had not been prone to sanction 
enormous expenditures of money to forward extrava- 
gant public works. The people however suffered 
from the sins of their brethren in the West. The 
banks felt the blow with the rest and suspended 
and resumed specie payments when these move- 
ments became general. They were not numerous ; 
the history of banking In Venr.ont was practically 
covered at that time by thirty years. 




',n3^^n. ,=j^^r^ 



SUGAR-MAKING : THE CRITICAL MOMENT. 



HOME HAPPEXTXGS. l^-J 

In iSo6 a State bank had been chartered, at first 
with two branches and afterward with four, but it 
was unsuccessful and was finally wound up at con- 
siderable loss. Since i8ii,when the State bank 
became a confessed failure, a number of private 
banks had been chartered by the Legislature. Not 
more than two or three of these failed to survive 
the panic, and in 1841 when it was well over, there 
were in all seventeen banks, with a capital of one 
million, seven hundred and thirty-five thousand 
dollars. A branch of the Bank of the United 
States had been established in Burlington in 1830, 
and this of course ceased operations with the 
parent institution, leaving the State apparently 
well supplied with private corporations. 

Of sa\ings banks there were none in those days. 
The virtues of thrift and frugality were however 
not less common than now, when the savinsfs-bank 
deposits make such a creditable showing. At any 
rate, the State recovered from the depression with 
all the elasticity of a thrifty, agricultural community. 
It soon became as prosperous as ever, though the 
West did not fully recover for almost a decade. 
There were farmers not a fev\- who had mortgaged 
their land to get money for speculation and these 
found then, as usually, the folly of such a course. 
In the universal smash of interdependent credit 
merchants failed bv the hundred, but most of them 



198 HOME HAPPENINGS. 

soon re-embarked in business and industries flour- 
ished upon a sounder basis than before. 

The lesson of the panic clearly was that economy 
and industry are better avenues to wealth than spec- 
ulation. It was so generally heeded, not only in Ver- 
mont but throughout the entire Union, that it is not 
at all impossible that the panic was a blessing in dis- 
guise. The lesson was a costly one ; but it was 
needed and the country profited by it. 

In the winter of 1837-38, in the midst of the 
panic came the "patriot " movement for the con- 
quest of Canada. It enlisted the sympathies and in- 
terest of the American people to an unprecedented 
extent; it led to violent disturbances along the 
northern frontier from Vermont to Michigan and 
came near involving the country in war with Great 
Britain. For some years there had been a great 
deal of dissatisfaction in Canada with the govern- 
ment of the Province. With some this took the 
shape of a desire for joining the American Union. 
Others wished to see Canada's government over- 
turned and a more liberal but independent one 
established ; but the majority of the disaffected 
would probably have been satisfied with such 
reasonable reforms as were afterward accorded. 

The dissatisfaction finally assumed the shape of an 
armed revolt under the lead of one McKenzie, a 
born agitator and a man of some literary ability 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 1 99 

but apparently with little talent for military leader- 
ship. McKenzie went to Buffalo early in Decem- 
ber ; public meetings of sympathizers were held and 
one Thomas Jefferson Sutherland undertook to' 
raise a force on the American side of the line to 
aid the insurgents. His definite project was to seize 
Navy Island, near the British shore of the Niagara 
River, and there raise the standard of an invading 
army. His plans were fully known, for he had no 
more discretion than to march troops through the 
streets of Buffalo to military music, openly pro- 
claiming; their destination. There was no one to 
oppose him, however, save the half-armed Canadian 
militia, and he occupied the island with twenty-four 
men. The force afterward increased to some hun- 
dreds, and was placed in command of Rensselaer 
Van Rensselaer, the dissipated son of a prominent 
New York family. The invasion would have been 
of very little moment had it not been the cause 
of trouble between the United States and Great 
Britain. 

President Van Buren had at the beginning of 
the movement issued a strict neutrality proclama- 
tion, but on December 29 a wanton outrage was 
committed which greatly complicated matters. The 
American steamboat Caroline which had been run- 
ning to the island with supplies of arms and pro- 
vision for Van Rensselaer's army was on that night 



200 HOME HAPPENINGS. 

destroyed b}^ a force of Canadian troops while 
lying at her dock on the American side of the 
river. 

In the struggle for her possession five or six per- 
sons were killed. For the murder of one of these, 
a Canadian soldier named McLeod was tried, but 
acquitted for want of evidence. Had he been hung 
the consequences might have been serious. As it 
was, the burning of the Caroline greatly inflamed 
the excitement along the border. One party of 
invaders occupied a stone windmill on the Cana- 
dian side of the river near Prescott, and was dis- 
lodged with considerable loss of life by the Loyalist 
troops. In Vermont public meetings of the sym- 
pathizers were held throughout the State to some 
extent and especially in its northern portion. The 
most unpopular act of Governor Jenison's long 
official career was undoubtedly his issuance of a 
proclamation warning the people not to violate the 
rules governing neutrals nor to aid in an attack upon 
a government with which the United States was at 
peace. The common sense of later times has of 
course endorsed the act as proper and necessary, 
but it was at the time bitterly assailed by the press 
and public. 

A number of insurgents from Canada, escaping 
into the State, undertook to raise a force to invade 
the province. Preparations were made to set out 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 20I 

from Alburgh. The militia under command of 
Gen. John E. Wool of the United States Army did 
not, however, permit them to form within the State, 
and the members of the "army " straggled across 
the line and formed upon the Canadian side. They 
were badly-managed, badly-ofificered and not well- 
armed. When the intellio^ence was brouoht that 
sixteen or seventeen hundred troops were marching 
against them the leaders of the little band were for 
returning into Vermont. There of course they 
could not be pursued, but General Wool was as 
prompt in this as in the preceding emergency. He 
invited the army of invasion to surrender to him. 
If they did this all would be well, but if they at- 
tempted to march across the line in military order 
he announced that he would direct the militia to 
fire upon them. This alternative left the invaders 
nothing to do but surrender, to give up their arms 
and go home. Thus the " war " ended, but a great 
deal of hard feeling grew out of the campaign. 
Until the hotly-contested presidential election of 
1840 gave the people other issues to discuss, the 
invasion and the action of the governor in this bor- 
der trouble were fruitful themes of controversy. 

The winter of 1842-43 was an exceptionally cold 
one and a number of cases of freezino- to death 
were reported. These were not the worst feature 
of the season, however ; in its later months there 



202 HOME HAPPENINGS. 

broke out an epidemic of skin disease somewhat 
resembling erysipelas which numbered its victims 
by the dozens in almost every township. The un- 
exampled severity of the weather and the number 
of the dead prevented the interment of their bodies 
in the consecrated ground of the churchyards, and 
at many places that winter could be seen temporary 
roadside tombs where the forms of the dead were 
laid away to await a final burial in the spring. 
When the ice left the rivers broke up ; the melt- 
ing snow caused the vast floods which usually fol- 
lowed a severe winter, and the disease was checked. 
It soon disappeared completely, but not for many 
years thereafter were its ravages recalled without a 
shudder. Even to this day 1842 is known as "the 
year of the epidemic." 

The period following the great panic was one of 
considerable legislative activity in Vermont. It 
was at this time that plank road companies began 
to apply in considerable numbers for incorporation. 
The roads of the State were almost uniformly bad, 
being especially heavy and muddy along the lake 
shore. The device of surfacing some of the more 
important ones with a continuous flooring of planks, 
making a firm, hard roadway in all weathers, found 
common acceptance at this time throughout the 
State as well as in some of its Northern neighbors. 
Until their place was taken by the railroads the 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 



203 



plank turnpikes greatly lessened the difficulties of 
travel. 

It was at about the same time that legislative en- 
couragement was extended to the industries of the 
State. A bounty to foster the raising and manufac- 
ture of silk was authorized in 1838, but soon abol- 
ished. In 1843 a law was passed making conditional 
appropriations for the establishment of agricultural 
societies. The following year the bounty was ex- 
tended to domestic manufactures and the mechanic 
arts. Great good has resulted to the State from 
the operation of this and subsequent legislation. 

The time was fruitful in changes, and in none did 
the altered conditions of life more strikingly mani- 
fest themselves than in^^-v r, 

W Ken' everj^ ma-n 



the altered habits of 
the people. The time 
when every man was 
his own cobbler, cooper 
and harness maker 
vanished with the 
coming of the r a i 1 - 
road. 

The great event in- 
troduced the State to 
its iron age, and that 
of wood and leather 
ended. 



Co Lyer. 




204 HOME HAPPENINGS. 

The increasing scarcity of timber and the diffi- 
culty of obtaining it, coupled with considerations 
of convenience robbed the fireside of some of its 
picturesqueness. The old fireplaces, greedy of fuel 
but generous of comfort, gave place in most in- 
stances to stoves. The econom)^ of labor was one 
reason of the change ; still another was the rapid 
decrease of the timber of the State which had a 
new value given to it by the stimulus which the canal 
and railroads had afforded to the lumber and wood- 
workinof industries. Such however is the force of 
habit, that many who began to use stoves for heat- 
ing purposes retained the old-time fireplaces for 
cooking for years, but usually all went together, 
and the great chimneys were torn out of the houses 
to make room. In such cases, and in most of the 
new houses built at the time, the chimneys were 
started, not from the foundation, but from a stout 
shelf in the attic. To this, with many sinuosities, 
the stovepipes ran through the rooms of both 
stories. It was an arrangement productive of the 
utmost economy of heat, but proved the cause of 
many fires, and was valueless for ventilation. 

The exterior appearance of the houses had 
chano-ed also. The rao-e for classicism, at this 
time, devastated almost the entire country. It 
filled Vermont also with stately houses modeled after 
the Parthenon — the upper stories shaded by their 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 205 

Grecian pediments and the fluted columns a stand- 
ing invitation to the jack-knives of mischievous 
boys. Whatever their external appearance, the 
homes of the people certainly, upon the average, 
grew more spacious, convenient and comfortable 
as the makeshifts and vexations of the backwoods 
period of existence drifted further and further 
away. The loft to which one climbed by a ladder 
became a matter of tradition alono^ with the tin 
oven and the saddle pillion. The common type of 
barn also underwent a considerable chano-e. In 
the early period all that the most prosperous farmer 
needed was a structure perhaps thirty by forty or 
twenty-six by thirty-six feet in size and twelve feet 
high at the eaves. It afforded space upon one 
side of the central driveway for a deep haymow 
and gave, upon the other, stabling for a yoke of 
oxen, a team of horses and three or four cows. 
And with this the farmer had been satisfied. 

But the growth of the dairy business greatly in- 
creased the number of milch cattle. For these 
space must be provided, and the extra fodder they 
required needed shelter. The former necessity 
might be met by building an unsatisfactory " lean- 
to " or a new barn precisely like the first ; the 
latter could be evaded by stacking out of doors a 
good portion of the hay and straw after threshing, 
to be hauled where wanted when winter came. 



2o6 HOME HAPPENINGS. 

Both needs however could be squarel}^ met by 
the erection of an entirely new type of barn big 
enough to house all the stock and crops and con- 
veniently and compactly arranged. This was done 
and ever since has been continued in increasingly 
numerous instances. 

Experience has led the Vermont farmer to seek 
the desired objects by increasing all the dimen- 
sions of his barns and, in perhaps a majority of 
instances, by building them against sidehills and 
making use of the semi-basements as stables and 
root cellars. In many of these barns the drive- 
ways are placed above the "big beam," the roof 
being hipped to give more room, so that all un- 
loading shall be downward and not up. Where 
this arrangement is impossible or deemed inadvis- 
able the horse-fork is used to unload hay or grain 
from the level. These and other improvements 
have been the natural result of the de\'elopment 
of the dairy interest and they can nowhere be 
studied to better advantage than in Vermont, 
whose long cold winters render excellent barns a 
matter of prime necessity. 

The altered habits and conditions of the people 
were manifested no less in their mental and moral 
than in their material activities. The period which 
witnessed the coming of the railroads and the most 
marked increase of the industries of the State was 



HOME HAPPENINGS. 207 

distinguished, among a number of less notable 
movements, by two which must be described in 
some detail. 

The fifth and sixth decades of the century will 
be ever memorable in Vermont no less than the 
rest of the Union, as the date of the great anti- 
slavery uprising. In a peculiar degree also to Ver- 
mont in common with comparatively few of the 
other States it will be remembered as the era of 
the temperance reform. The part which the peo- 
ple of the Green Mountains bore in the temper- 
ance and anti-slavery crusades forms one of the 
brightest passages in the story of their State. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 




N the early years of 
the present century 
the United States was 
a drunken and disso- 
lute nation. This fact 
is so forced upon us 
by unimpeachable tes- 
timony that escape is 
impossible, no matter 
- how reluctant we may 
be to 2:ive it credit. It was a time of vio-orous 
physical activity but of low moral standards in 
many ways. Liquor was plentiful and cheap; 
almost every man drank, nor was it counted shame- 
ful to indulge to excess. The host of evil con- 
sequences which always follow in the train of 
drunken habits were everywhere lamented by the 
few and accepted by the many as inevitable. Brutal 
and degrading sports flourished, political contro- 
versies were waged upon a low level and the most 
sordid vices were probablv more common, certainly 

208 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 209 

less concealed in the gratification, than is now the 
case. 

The United States was not alone in this unfor- 
tunate condition, and the reformatory impulse 
which dignified the second quarter of the century 
was not confined to any one country. In England 
the corrective agencies which are usually most 
stimulated to activity when evil forces seem trium- 
phant busied themselves largely in temperance agi- 
tation, in improving the condition of prisoners, in 
factory and mining legislation and in shifting the 
burdens of taxation partially from the shoulders of 
the very poor to others better able to bear them. 
On the Continent was secured the abolition of 
torture, injudicial processes, and an amelioration 
of the condition of the peasant classes ; of this 
latter the liberation of the Russian serfs was the 
crowning triumph. America joined the world-wide 
current of reform by a:ttempting or effecting a 
large number of greatly needed changes. None 
of these was more important than the temperance 
movement ; with this, indeed, all the others were 
intimately connected. 

Without some reference to the general campaign 
for temperance in America the story of the passage 
of the prohibitory law in Vermont cannot be ade- 
quately told. Vermont has carried the reform 
further than most of the other States ; she proba- 



2IO THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

bly profited more by it; but the agitation by means 
of which this was effected was not confined to any 
one locaHty. A national temperance society was 
organized at Saratoga in 1808, but seems to have 
made little progress against the current. In 1826 
the American Temperance Society was formed at 
Boston. It is worthy of note that the first tem- 
perance advocates did not dream of seeking pro- 
hibitive leg^islation ; thev counseled moderation in 
drinkino: and the substitution of beer and ale for 
stronger liquors. The members of the Temper- 
ance Society actually built a brewery near Boston 
to give force to their suggestions in this latter 
respect. By about 1835 or 1S40, however, the total 
abstinence theory had gained a firm foothold; with 
it came naturally the idea of repressive legislation. 
The American Temperance Union was formed in 
1836 at Saratoga. In 1840 the Washington Band 
of Reformers, probably the most powerful temper- 
ance agency of the century, organized at Baltimore. 
The good which was accomplished by these or- 
ganizations was vast beyond calculation ; they 
reacted favorably upon national life and manners 
in many other respects but remotely associated 
with the good chiefly aimed at. 

Maine was the first State to pass a prohibitive 
ordinance in 1846, but Vermont was not far behind. 
The powerful and growing temperance sentiment 



THE TEAIFERANCE REFORM. 



211 



in the State forced some recognition in the Legisla- 
ture even earlier. In 1844 a law was enacted fix- 
ing a minimum fee for licenses and appointing 
county commissioners to issue them. In 1846 pro- 
vision was made for a popular vote on license or 
no license. In 1850 the selectmen of the towns 
were authorized to empower agents to sell liquor 




SIGNING THE PLEDGE. 

for chemical, medicinal or mechanical purposes 
and also to license victualers to sell small beer or 
cider ; the licenses of any who were found dispens- 
ing hard liquors to drink were to be taken away 
froni them. 

In 1852 what has generally been called the pro- 



212 THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

hibitive enactment was framed-. This was really 
the most important step in a series of such en- 
actments. It provided that no person should be 
allowed to sell or give away any intoxicating drink 
except for medicinal, chemical or mechanical pur- 
poses, agents for such sale being named by county 
excise commissioners. In 1853 the use, manu- 
facture and sale of cider was permitted but not its 
sale in places of public resort or to drunkards. In 
1854 the severe penalties of the law were extended 
to any one owning or keeping liquor with evident 
intent to sell; in 1855 still more restrictive legisla- 
tion followed; in 1856 penalties were provided for 
railway, stage or express agents who transported 
liquor intended for illegal sale and in 1858 its use 
at "raisings" was expressly prohibited. Since 
then the law upon the subject has been frequently 
changed, but its spirit has remained much the 
same. The sale of liquor except for the purposes 
specified has been for over thirty years tabooed. 
Whether such absolute restriction is wise, beneficial 
and judicious is yet a controverted point. Its bitter 
opponents have never ceased to reiterate that in 
Vermont and Maine the law has proved worse than 
useless, but in both these States the large majority 
say most emphatically that it has been an inesti- 
mable benefit, and it is quite probable that they 
are in a position to know. 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 213 

The long-continued agitation of the temperance 
movement, which had made hard drinking unfash- 
ionable and drunkenness a disgrace, would certainly 
have accomplished much for the State unaided by 
any legislation whatever, but whether owing to 
this, or to the prohibitory law or in a measure to 
both, it is certain that the condition of society has 
been greatly improved in this respect. Where 
drunkenness was once common it became uncom- 
mon. The confirmed habits of adults were not 
always affected, but the removal of temptation 
from the young led to a gradual and beneficent 
change. The habits of the people became more 
industrious as well as more temperate, and all 
good movements felt the impulse of the funda- 
mental reform. The schools flourished as never 
before, the churches maintained themselves with 
viQ;or ao-ainst the unfavorable effect of emigration, 
libraries were founded, lectures and debating socie- 
ties took the place of gatherings of more question- 
able advantage. 

The law to abolish imprisonment for debt came 
during the temperance agitation. Later on, the 
passage of a law to prevent cruelty to animals, 
the steps taken to provide for the care and educa- 
tion of the dependent and defective classes and 
the ineffectual yet persistent efforts in behalf of 
arbitration as a means of settling disputes between 



2 14 ^^^ TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

nations indicated the drift of public sentiment. 
That the reform instinct gathered too great impe- 
tus in its successful course, and that absurd and 
chimerical schemes for the amelioration of society 
were discussed along with others of a positively 
baleful menace does not detract from the value of 
the original impulse. It has ever been the fate of 
great and worthy movements to be condemned to 
drag thus at their skirts the lesser and unworthy 
ones it has inspired, or those which are too far in 
advance of the times. 

The period of the temperance reform was that 
which saw the visionary attempt of such pure and 
high-minded men and women as Ripley, Haw- 
thorne and Maro-aret Fuller to establish an ideal 
community at Brook Farm. It was the period too 
when the reasonable demand for the reform of the 
dress of women, in the interest of health, economy 
and convenience, found sporadic expression in the 
ugly and impossible Bloomer costume. And in 
the same anxious years the revolting doctrine of 
free love found not a few adherents, some of whom 
liad so far the courage of their convictions as to 
practice what they preached. 

Time has corrected manv of the cxtravas^ances 
born of the yeasty ferment of the age of reform, 
but it has left untouched the effects of most move- 
ments worthy of success. The temperance reform 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 21 J 

in other States has transmitted to the descendants 
of the men who fought the fight of the "forties" 
only the altered conditions which make the liquor 
habit a reproach. In Vermont the prohibitory law 
has survived for over thirty years and seems as far 
from repeal as ever. It will be of interest here to 
anticipate somewhat and seek testimony as to its 
value to the State in more recent times. Its best 
friends to-day do not claim that it is always and 
everywhere enforced with equal strictness, but they 
would claim that, even where enforcement is most 
lax, drinking is less public and temptation less 
insistent than in places where the liquor trade has 
full license. Upon this point let us hear the testi- 
mony of a professed enemy of the system. The 
Hon. Justin McCarthy, M. P., said in an article on 
"Prohibitive Legislation in the United States" 
in the Fortnightly Review in 187 1 : 



" In Rutland, Vermont, there was great agitation during the winter of 
1870-71 because of the abuses of the hotej system. The bars were allowed, 
people complained, to become carousing dens for the common tipplers of 
the town. The authorities began a crusade to put down all selling of drink 
by the hotel-keepers. The hotel-keepers declared that if restricted they 
would close their houses, and thus drive all strangers away from the city, 
and ruin its trade. The authorities persevered, and the hotel-keepers did 
actually shut up their houses for several days. But the puritanical blood 
of Rutland was up and the leading townspeople actually converted their 
own houses into caravansaries for all strangers — actually had servants at 
the railway stations to receive every new-comer, and quarter him according 
to the previously arranged billet. This odd struggle ended in the discom- 
fiture and surrender of the hotel-keepers. They ' caved in,' promised to 
obey the laws implicitly, and reopened their houses. Yet I have to add my 
little commentary of personal experience. I arrived in Rutland within a 



2l8 THE TEMPERANCE REEOKM. 



week after the ti'iuni])li of pul)lic opinion, and tlie unconditional surrender 
of the hotel-keepers. I found no more difficulty in getting brandy at my 
hotel in Rutland than if I had been at the St. Nicholas in New York. I 
asked for it openly, purposely, ostentatiously ; it was brought without a 
word of comment or a hint of concealment. In Burlington, in the same 
State, a day or two after, I stayed at a hotel where there was an open bar 
with a crowd of idlers, evidently nut travelers, lounging and smoking and 
drinking around it." 



This was written some time ago and the con- 
dition of things in Burlington and Rutland may 
have changed much since 1871, but it is not every 
year that a British Member of Parliament comes to 
America to break the laws and speak of his success 
as a reason why such laws should not be enacted. 
It is worth remembering that Burlington is the 
largest. city in the State; it has a considerable float- 
ing population while Rutland is the centre of the 
quarrying region and naturally attracts from without 
the State many laborers who are unused to its re- 
strictions, as well as a large number of travelers. 
Mr. McCarthy would certainly have found matters 
very different in the smaller villages, by which the 
success of the law could be better and more accu- 
rately tested. We need not further comment upon 
his experience than to point out what a contrast 
his narrative presents between the zeal and self- 
sacrifice of the "leading townspeople" who did so 
much for the law and the contemptible action of 
the hotcl-kccpers who held their promises so lightly. 
It is evident enough from these experiences that 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 



219 



the people had no doubt whatever of the value of 
the law, even when imperfectly enforced, and so it 
would be to-day. 

No better evidence of the temper of the people 
on this subject could be found than that furnished 
by the legislation of recent years. We have seen 
how the prohibitive law was enacted so long ago 
as 1852. More than thirty years after its enact- 
ment, the legislators were still hedging in the 
whisky power by further enactments. 

•At a time when in many other States both polit- 
ical parties seemed to be vying with each other for 
the favor of the vast vote which the saloons con- 
trolled, the Vermont Legislatures of 1882, 1884 
and 1886 were passing 
various acts relative to 
liquor of which a few 
examples will show the 
purpose and intent. 

One of these laws 
provided for the study 
in all public schools of 
physiology and hygiene 
with especial reference 
to the effect of liquor 
and narcotics upon the 
h u m a n system. It 
was the intent of the 




A BLOOMER. 



2 20 THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

framers of tlie law that the subject should be taught 
as thoroughly as grammar or geography, that all 
the pupils of the State might in order under- 
stand the physiological meaning of drunkenness 
and kindred excesses. Another act was designed 
to compel every person convicted of intoxication to 
tell where he procured liquor. Another provides 
that while a man is in jail for any crime committed 
while drunk, his family can by legal process collect 
two dollars per day from the seller of the liquor. 
Another lays down the penalty for the third offense 
of intoxication as a fine of twenty dollars and one 
month's imprisonment. The men who make these 
laws do not seem to doubt the efificacy of prohibi- 
tion but rather to do all in their power to aid the 
purpose of the law's framers. 

Is the law enforced } Certainly not with com- 
pleteness. The records of every local court are as 
conclusive upon this point as they are incontro- 
vertible evidence of the intent to enforce the law 
so far as possible. The trial of liquor-sellers forms 
a considerable share of the criminal business of 
the State, and the penalties imposed are so severe 
and so seldom escaped by the guilty that the trafific 
is compelled to hide in corners out of the way of 
public vision. 

Whether because or in spite of prohibition crime 
is not common. Magrant offenses against decency 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 22 1 

and crimes against the person are rare, and even 
more so are serious offenses against property rights. 
It is not only possible but habitual over many parts 
of the State to dispense with bolts and bars with- 
out fear. A community without saloons has few at- 
tractions for " tramps " or those other idle people who 
live constantly on the verge of crime and need only 
a slight impulse to become serious offenders. The 
prisons and asylums of the State compare most 
favorably with those of other communities, and its 
thrift and economy are notable. 

In other parts of the Union, too, the Vermonters 
have borne witness to their belief in the efficacy 
of prohibition. The tremendous influx of immi- 
o-rants from the Green Mountain State to Michio-an 
in the " thirties " was one of the impelling causes of 
the passage of a prohibitory law there in 1850, and 
in Iowa, Wisconsin and other Northwestern States 
the large element of settlers from Vermont has been 
pretty constantly on the side of the restriction of 
the liquor traffic. The advisability of prohibition 
is yet a debated question, but it cannot be denied 
that in the majority of the people of Vermont it 
has strong advocates of the affirmative. 

Not more important perhaps in its ultimate re- 
sults than the temperance movement, but certainly 
far more creditable to the generous sentiment of 
the people of the State, since those for whom it was 



222 THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 

waged were not their own sons but a nation of 
black men half a thousand miles away, the anti- 
slavery cause merits the place of honor in any con- 
sideration of the epoch of reform in Vermont. 
And in that all-important and trying crisis the peo- 
ple conducted themselves with so much wisdom, 
boldness and humanity that their record will ever 
remain a fit source of pride to their descendants. 
Let us examine it. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 




HEN in November, 
1777, Captain Ebene- 
zer Allen with a party 
of Green Mountain 
Boys took possession 
of the British works 
at Ticonderoga, he cut 
off the rear guard of 
the flying enemy, tak- 
ing among the num- 
ber, Dinah Morris, the negro slave of a British 
officer, and her child. Allen being, as he wrote, 
"conscientious that it is not right in the sight of 
God to keep slaves," gave the woman a written 
certificate of freedom^ which unique document was 
recorded in the town clerk's office at Bennington. 

Slavery was at that time legal in New York, Of 
this province Vermont was nomihally a part but 
the people had no more love for the system than 
Allen, and one of the first acts of their indepen- 
dence was to prohibit human servitude except for 

223 



2 24 THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 

crime. But though the people would have none of 
slavery within their own jurisdiction it was not till 
well within the present century that slavery became 
the overruling political issue of the Republic, or 
the question of its ultimate fate a matter for burn- 
inor discussion. 

In the year 182S a slender young man with hazel 
eyes, fair complexion and dark brown hair, and wear- 
ing constantly a pair of spectacles, made his appear- 
ance in Bennington. He was the editor of a paper 
which was in that year established to advocate the 
election of John Quincy Adams. His name was 
William Lloyd Garrison. He had been selected to 
conduct the new organ because of his practical 
acquaintance with the art of printing and his 
ability as a writer. 

He stipulated, upon assuming the editorship of 
the Journal of the Times, that he should be free to 
advocate, besides the principles of the Whig party, 
Anti-Slavery, Temperance, Peace and Moral Re- 
form, and no objection seems to have been made 
to this rather extensive programme. Adams re- 
ceived an overwhelming majoritv in Vermont, but 
his rival Andrew Jackson was elected. In the very 
heat of the campaign Garrison never lost sight of 
his pet reforms, and after the election he prepared 
and circulated, through the postmasters in the vari- 
ous towns, petitions praying for the abolition of 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 225 

slavery in the District of Columbia. These were 
signed by no less than two thousand three hundred 
and fifty-two people. No such objection was made 
to this use of the mails as was afterward offered by 
Amos Kendall, Postmaster-General under Jackson, 
who openly encouraged postal agents not to for- 
ward abolitionist mail matter of any sort. 

The evil days were coming, however, even in 
Vermont. Garrison's paper was short-lived and the 
young editor went elsewhere to finish his career of 
suffering and achievement, but the active propa- 
gandism of anti-slavery sentiments still continued. 
Factional opposition rose higher and higher until 
in the year 1835 the Rev. Samuel J. May, who had 
been invited to speak for the Vermont Anti-Slav- 
ery Society, was insulted and almost mobbed in 
Rutland and Montpelier. The better sentiment of 
the State was even then crystallizing in favor of 
the restriction of slavery, and from the year 1837 
until the war, Vermont was practically a unit in 
demanding that human bondage be confined within 
existing limits. For up to the very opening of the 
Rebellion the restriction of slave territory was all 
that the great mass of Northern Whig and Repub- 
lican voters hoped to accomplish. 

We have seen that Vermont was admitted to the 
Union in 1791. Almost from that time on to the 
opening of the war the admission of new States 



2 26 THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 

was governed by political considerations based 
upon slavery. In order that the balance of power 
between the North and South might remain un- 
changed free and slave States were admitted in 
equal proportion. From the first the North greatly 
exceeded the South in population ; it had a larger 
representation in the lower House of Congress, but 
for three quarters of a century the South managed 
to keep the balance in the Senate unchanged. 

Vermont's admission was followed in 1792 by 
that of Kentucky, a slave State. Tennessee came 
in 1796 and Ohio in 1802. Louisiana in 181 2 and 
Indiana in 18 16 were the next pair, and they were 
followed by Mississippi in 181 7 and Illinois in 
18 18. In the nc-xt year Maine and Missouri were 
admitted together, in 1836 Michigan and Arkansas, 
in 1845 Iowa and Florida. So far just as many 
slave as free States had been taken into the Union. 
Prior to the latter date, however, Texas had wrested 
its independence from Mexico and was seeking 
admission as a slave State, and the question of 
the abolition of the slave trade in the District of 
Columbia had become a burning one. 

The Le2;islature of Vermont transmitted to Con- 
gress a strono: resolution in favor of this latter 
measure in 1837 and 1838. In the latter year it 
also passed a resolution declaring that the adoption 
by the House of Representatives of a rule that all 



THE AN7T-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 



227 



petitions on the slavery question be laid on the 
table imprinted and unread was " a daring infringe- 
ment of the right of the people to petition and a 
flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United 
States." In 1839 similar resolutions were passed 
and in 1840 a law was made providing that any 




DINAH MORRIS S CERTIFICATE OF FREEDOM 



alleged fugitive from slavery should have the right 
of trial by jury when claimed in Vermont by an 
owner from a slave State. There was little doubt 
what the verdict of a Vermont jury would be. In 
the same year Harrison the Whig candidate for 
president received a great majority over Van Buren, 



2 28 THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 

and for Birney, the Abolitionist candidate, were 
cast three hundred and nineteen votes — not an 
alarming number certainly, yet it portended much. 

In 1 84 1 and 1842 the Legislature passed yet 
more vigorous anti-slavery resolutions, protesting 
aeainst the admission of Texas as a slave State 
and demanding that the District of Columbia be 
made free territory. In the latter year Vermont 
declared that Congress ought to prevent the inter- 
State slave trade and that the Constitution should 
be amended so as to prohibit slavery everywhere. 
This was very advanced ground for the times. 

The election of Polk in 1844, partly through 
the secession of the Birney vote which had grown 
to nearly four thousand in Vermont and in other 
States held the balance of power, rendered the 
admission of Texas inevitable, but Vermont ceased 
not to protest. In 1843 the Legislature had for- 
bidden courts and magistrates to issue warrants for 
the arrest of escaping slaves in accordance with 
the provisions of the old fugitive slave law^ of 1793. 
In 1844 it again protested against the admission of 
Texas and declared the system of slavery " a mon- 
strous anomaly in a free government and the 
source of intolerable evils." In 1S45 still another 
ineffectual protest was sent to W'ashington, only a 
short time before the admission of Texas. 

The war with Mexico which was the direct result 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 229 

of that admission and the dispute about the south- 
western boundary of the new State found no favor 
in Vermont. It was fought almost entirely by 
Southern soldiers. It added another to the list of 
slave States and postponed the day of final reck- 
oning with the hateful system. In 1848 General 
Taylor was elected President, receiving a plurality 
of the votes of Vermont, though Van Buren the 
Free Soil candidate had 13,837 votes in that State. 
The Free Soil party was the natural refuge of 
many of the more outspoken anti-slavery men. It 
was led by and recruited from Democrats who had 
been driven from their party by the subservience 
of Polk to the slave oligarchy. Its appearance in 
the field boded no good to the continuance of that 
power. 

Taylor's administration was embarrassed with 
the problem of providing for the government of 
the vast territory won from Mexico. This was 
finally accomplished by the compromise measures 
of 1850, which included the admission of Califor- 
nia as a free State, the organization of New Mexico 
and Utah as free territories and the abolition of 
the slave trade in the District of Columbia, while 
the slave power was conciliated by a more stringent 
fugitive slave law which aroused the deepest hostil- 
ity in the North, especially after Chief Justice 
Taney's celebrated opinion in the Dred Scott case. 



230 THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 

The voice of Vermont had not been silent 
through these controversies. In 1849 the Legis- 
lature pronounced slavery " a crime against hu- 
manity " and declared for free territories and the 
suppression of the slave trade. The State's attor- 
neys in the several counties were in 1850 by law in- 
structed to conduct the defense of escaped slaves 
claimed by their former masters ; the Legislature 
protested in the most bitter language against the 
new fuo-itive slave law. 

The election of Pierce, a " Northern man with 
Southern sentiments," in 1852 brought into exist- 
ence the Republican party. The name appears 
to have been used first in the local campaigns of 
1854; it was universally applied when in 1856 
John C. Fremont ran as its first Presidential can- 
didate. The " Pathfinder," as Fremont was called, 
received in Vermont 39,561 votes against 10,569 
cast for Buchanan, the successful Democratic 
candidate. 

The new party was made up in Vermont as else- 
where of the most diverse elements. The largest 
single ingredient was from the old \Miig party. 
This was reinforced by most of the P^ree Soilers, 
by a large number of new voters casting their first 
ballots and by the Birney Abolitionists. From 
the start the new })arty had things all its own way. 
Its moderate aims — for it looked for nothini;- more 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 231 

radical than the territorial limitation of slavery — 
recommended it to the great body of moderate 
men and the more pronounced fell into its ranks 
because it was marching in something like their 
own direction. 

President Buchanan aided, as Pierce had done, 
every wish and effort of the pro-slavery leaders. 
By giving them all he sealed their fate ; the time 
of their greatest triumph was that also of greatest 
danger. The supine acquiescence of the adminis- 
tration in the efforts of the Missouri border ruffians 
to force slavery upon Kansas disgusted the North. 
In Vermont the armed invasion of Kansas was 
denounced by the Legislature as an act of atrocity 
unparalleled in the history of the country ; the 
non-interference of the Federal goverument was 
declared to have rendered it unworthy the confi- 
dence and respect of free men. 

The Legislature of 1856 appropriated, by a law 
repealed the following year, twenty thousand dol- 
lars for the relief of free State men in Kansas, 
and in 1858 crowned its record of bold and spirited 
legislation by declaring that every person who had 
been a slave in another State should be free upon 
coming to Vermont. " When the government or 
judiciary of the United States refuses to protect 
citizens when in another State or territory," de- 
clared these sturdy freemen, " it becomes the duty 



232 THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 

of the States to protect their own citizens at what- 
ever hazard or cost." These were noble words and 
they may fitly close the record of twenty years of 
lesislative action and ao;itation for freedom — action 
and agitation which will be in all future time the 
pride of the people of the State. 

When the nominating conventions met in i860, 
the Democrats divided upon the irrepressible ques- 
tion of slavery. After a political struggle of un- 
paralleled bitterness three candidates were placed 
in the field. Douglas representing mainly the 
moderate pro-slavery Democrats of the North, 
Breckenridge, who was the candidate of the ex- 
treme pro-slavery leaders of the South and Bell, 
who commanded the support of that insignificant 
element which believed that slavery could still be 
ignored in American politics. Democratic division 
was Republican opportunity and Abraham Lincoln, 
the candidate of that party, was elected President 
of the United States. In Vermont he received an 
overwhelming majority, 42,419 votes being cast for 
him against 6,849 for Douglas and about 2,000 
divided between Bell and Breckenridge. 

The election of Lincoln was by the hot-headed 
secessionists of the South construed to mean that 
their "peculiar institution " was in danger, though 
neither Lincoln nor the Republican party had at 
that time any intention of interfering with slavery 




A BASE BALL CLUB VOLUNTEERING FOR SERVICE, 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 235 

except by preventing its extension by peaceful and 
constitutional means. 

Between the election of Lincoln in November 
and his inauguration in March, the secession plot 
grew and ripened unchecked by Buchanan. Forts 
and arsenals, the property of the United States, 
were seized, custom houses were closed, the Federal 
authority repudiated over wide regions and many 
of the Southern sympathizers in the civil and mili- 
tary service of the country resigned their places to 
o-o " with their section." 

o 

Hardly more than a month after President Lin- 
coln's term began, the fall of Sumter under rebel 
guns incensed the free North, and the President's 
call for seventy-five thousand men was issued. No- 
where was it responded to with more alacrity than 
in Vermont. The Green Mountain Boys did not 
rest content with passing resolutions against slav- 
ery and denouncing disunion from a safe distance. 
The time had come to tight, and Vermont saw that 
it had come. Thenceforward, during the bloodiest 
and costliest war of historv, its sons so bore them- 
selves on many hotly-contested fields that the troops 
of no other State can challenge comparison, num- 
ber for number, with them. They had been men 
of peace for more than a generation, but the blood 
of fighting forefathers ran in their veins and patriot- 
ism was the earliest lesson they had learned. 



236 THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 

The Green Mountain Boys at the outbreak of 
the War of the Revolution had pledged to Congress 
" more than five thousand hardy soldiers capable of 
bearing arms in defense of American liberty." 
That was before the days of the census, and it is 
probable that the zeal of the Vermonters in a good 
cause led them to promise more soldiers than their 
entire adult male population at the time. Cer- 
tainly no such number took the field. 

Of the resources of the State in 1S.60 and of its 
prowess in the War of the Rebellion we have more 
exact knowledge from the census and from the 
military records. " Vermont alone of the free 
vStates," says Benedict, " sent to the war ten men 
for every one hundred of its population, and out of 
a total enrollment of thirty-seven thousand men 
liable to do military duty, stood credited at last 
with nearly thirty-four thousand volunteers." No 
Vermont regiment lost its colors in battle. The 
soldiers of no other Northern State took so many 
Southern flags in proportion. No other Northern 
State had anything like so high a percentage of 
killed and wounded. 

The organization and equipment of such a host 
was a matter of the utmost difficulty for a small and 
poor commonwealth. Its military record was a 
glorious one and its traditions were well preserved, 
but the population of the State was nearly station- 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 237 

ary, its young men were drawn into the tide of 
emigration which was peopling the West, and the 
forest conditions which liad made every Vermonter 
in earlier years an arms-bearer and marksman had 
entirely changed. 

For years after its admission as a State the militia 
of Vermont had comprised all the able-bodied men 
between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. In 
i860 this had dwindled away to nothing. For 
some years there had been absolutely no militia. 
Since 1856 only a few small and poorly-armed 
companies had represented the power of the State. 
They were without proper equipments, there were 
inferior arms — smooth bores of a past generation 
— for only a part of the thousand men or so en- 
rolled, and the " uniforms " of the different com- 
panies were anything but uniform. The splendid 
army which Vermont sent to the South was prac- 
tically built from new foundations. 

Early in 1861 war began for the first time to 
seem possible to Northern eyes. In January an 
order was issued to the captains of the various com- 
panies directing them to ascertain whether any of 
their men were unable or indisposed, if need be, to 
respond to any call which the President might 
make for troops. Only three hundred and seventy- 
six men were reported as armed and ready for ser- 
vice. Some captains replied that their men had no 



238 THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 

fit muskets, and one made answer that he did not 
recognize the President's authority over the miHtia 
of Vermont, but that he and his men would be 
ready if needed. This the event proved. 

The President's call to arms came at last. It 
was flashed by the telegraph throughout the North, 
thrilling every heart and arousing a wild popular 
enthusiasm for the Union which swept everything 
before it. No State executive was prepared to act 
more promptly than was Erastus Fairbanks, the 
" war Governor " of Vermont. His proclamation 
callino: for a reg^iment for active service and con- 
vening a special session of the Legislature to take 
the necessary measures of preparation was issued 
on the same day with President Lincoln's call. 

On the evening of April 19, four days after, the 
militia officers of the State met and selected the 
Bradford, Brandon, Burlington, Cavendish, Middle- 
bury, Northfield, Rutland, St. Albans, Swanton and 
Woodstock companies to make up the first Ver- 
mont regiment. Its life as a regiment was short, 
the men only enlisting for three months, but at the 
close of that period five sixths of them re-enlisted, 
and before the close of the war, a large proportion 
held officers' commissions either in V^ermont com- 
mands or in those of other States. 

The period was one of intense public excitement. 
Meetings were held everywhere, and preachers left 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 



239 



their pulpits, farmers their ploughs, merchants their 
desks and lawyers their clients to enroll themselves 
in the new regiments for which the Legislature soon 
called. Several banks placed one tenth of their 
capital at the disposal of the Governor for war pur- 
poses and citizens and former citizens of the State 
made large private contributions. The railroads 
offered to transport men and material free of charge. 
The students at Burlington and Middlebury began 
drilling, and most of them went to the war. 

The game of base -ball had been very popular in 
Vermont and there were large numbers of clubs 
organized in 1861. Now most of these clubs be- 
came the nuclei of companies of soldiers. The 
firemen of the differ- 



ent villages were not 
behind the base-ball 
players. Every c o n - 
ceivable club or organ- 
ization of active young 
men became a feeder 
of the patriot armies. 

The special session 
of the Legislature voted 
the relatively enormous 
sum of one million dol- 
lars for war expenses, 
provided for arming 




n 2x 



240 THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 

and organizing six more regiments, added seven 
dollars per month to the Government's pay of sol- 
diers, and laid a war tax to meet these expenditures. 
Provision was made for the families of soldiers who 
might be killed or disabled, and the various mili- 
tary departments were thoroughly organized. 

In these patriotic acts there was no distinction 
of party. The few Democratic members of the 
Legislature had met in caucus and resolved to follow 
the advice of one of their number who said: " If 
the Republicans propose to raise five regiments, 
do you go for raising ten. If they want half a 
million for troops, do you move to make it a million 
dollars." There were a few Copperheads in Ver- 
mont but none of them seem to have been in that 
Le2;islature. In tlie extreme event of the State 
becoming bankrupt under these new and extraor- 
dinary expenses and failing to pay the extra seven 
dollars a month to the soldiers or to look after the 
families of the slain many of the towns provided by 
a separate guarantee of these promises to all of 
their citizens who enlisted. 

It was thus that the troops of Vermont joined 
the movement which, originating in every hamlet 
of the North, and pouring on with resistless energy 
made the national capital resound with the tread of 
marching regiments, and piled up against secession 
the mightiest armies of history. 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE. 241 

As they gathered to the defense, tlie Green 
Mountain Boys were conspicuous among the crack 
regiments of other States for their fine appearance, 
soldierly bearing and sober demeanor. The uni- 
versal testimony of the time is that they were model 
soldiers in appearance as they afterward proved to 
be in actual conflict. 

To tell the story of their part in the civil war 
would be to recite the history of the war itself, for 
wherever there was hard fighting to be done the 
Vermonters were found in the front. It will be 
impossible in the compass of a single chapter to 
more than glance at some of its more salient and 
dramatic crises. 



CHAPTER XL 



IN THE FIELD. 




^T was April when Sum- 
ter was fired upon and 
the War of the Rebel- 
lion became inevita- 
ble, but there was 
great delay before the 
Northern and South- 
ern armies were set 
face to face in the 
field. Few if any of 
the Northern States were any better prepared for 
the war than Vermont. Beyond throwing a few 
hastily equipped regiments into Washington to 
save the city from capture, little could be done 
until the armies were gathered, organized and 
drilled. 

There were those in the South who confidently 
predicted that Washington would be in the hands 
of the Confederate armies in a month, that the 
Yankees would not fight, and that independence 

would be established before the end of the year. 

242 



IN THE FIELD. 243 

There were those in the North who expected Rich- 
mond to be taken within six weeks by raw mihtia. 
On neither side was there any adequate conception 
of the length and desperateness of the coming 
combat. The freshly organized troops of the 
North gathered from far and near, were encamped 
and drilled into some semblance of military form 
during the hot summer months of 1861, and it was 
not till past the middle of July that the first pitched 
battle of any consequence was fought. The coun- 
try was in a state of intense excitement when it 
was finally known that the army of the Potomac 
was moving to the front. The issue of battle was 
joined at Bull Run Creek on the twenty-first of 
July, and the Northern army sustained a decided 
thouo'h not a crushino' defeat. 

The news of that defeat caused unutterable dismay 
in the North and short-lived exultation in the South. 
Men even began to doubt the final triumph of 
the Union cause and for a time the utmost de- 
jection prevailed. But the ultimate effect of the 
defeat may have been more beneficial than victory. 
It cast the North into profound gloom but made 
its people realize at last the magnitude of the task 
set before them. New res^iments were oro-anized 
and sent to the front, new resolution came after 
the first shock of disappointment had passed, and 
the unalterable purpose of the North became more 



244 ^^ THE FIELD. 

firmly fixed than ever, while those who had Imag- 
ined that the war would be a mere holiday excur- 
sion received a rude but salutary awakening. 

But one Vermont regiment took part in the 
battle. The First Regiment was enlisted for but 
three months, and was only concerned in the com- 
paratively trifling engagement of Big Bethel, spend- 
ing the entire term of its enlistment in camp duty. 
It did not participate in the battle of Bull Run and 
was disbanded early in August, most of its mem- 
bers re-enlisting. The Second Regiment, organized 
in May, reached Washington on June 26, less than 
a month before Bull Run. 

This was a splendid command. Taken for all 
in all probably no finer body of men entered the 
Union armies or one that performed more valiant 
service. Abundant proof of its high character was 
given even on the disastrous field of Bull Run, for 
the Second Vermont took and held an advanced 
position in the enemy's front long after the rest 
of the army was in full retreat. When the fact of 
their isolated position dawned upon the men they 
withdrew in good order. Even then, though the 
Vermonters knew that there had been a retreat, 
there was no panic. Not until they came upon 
the heels of the rout and saw its character did they 
join in the mad panic of flight. Their loss during 
the day had been considerable, but up to that 



IN THE FIELD. 245 

hour they had conducted themselves with remark- 
able coolness. There were others besides the fight- 
ing men who showed the same qualities. Two at 
least of Vermont's non-combatants showed the 
courage that was in them that day. 

One was Assistant-surgeon Carpenter, who was 
left in charge of a number of wounded men. He 
had no means of getting them back to the rear 
and saving them from falling into captivity. This 
dilemma he solved by standing in the road, pistol 
in hand, and compelling every panic-stricken wagon- 
driver who came along the dusty road, urging his 
panting horses to their utmost speed, to take up a 
portion of his charges, until all had been removed. 

The other was John C. Thayer. He was a theo- 
logical student and had desired to accompany the 
Second Vermont to the front, but on account of a 
stiff wrist had been rejected by the examining phy- 
sician. He was determined to serve the army in 
some capacity and chose the humble one of cook. 
In the half-deserted camp, on the day when Bull 
Run was fought he listened as long as he could 
to the battle music in front; when he could bear it 
no longer he borrowed a musket and started toward 
the sound of the firing. He must have passed 
without knowing it the disorganized Union lines 
for presently he came upon a Confederate of^cer 
and file of soldiers who ordered him to surrender. 



246 



IN THE FIELD. 



Instead of doing this Thayer shot the officer, leaped 
upon his horse and rode off home in safety, having 
exhibited much the same spirit as those of his com- 
rades who had on that day brought their colors 
safely off from a place of the utmost danger. 

The remainder of the year was passed in unim- 




THE SLEEPING SENTRY. 



portant military duties, in minor engagements and 
on picket Awiy. In the fall of 1S61 the Third, 
Fourth, Fifth and Sixth regiments were formed and 
united with the Second in the famous First Ver- 
mont brigade. Not one of these regiments but 
could show its record of at least twenty-five pitched 



IN THE FIELD. 247 

battles. Their loss of men killed outright in bat- 
tle reached the appalling number of 6.55 per cent, 
of the whole, the general average for the entire 
Northern armies being but 2.88 per cent. Such a 
tremendous record meant hard and constant fioht- 
ino; throuQrhout the war. 

Only a few of the more signal achievements of 
the Brigade can be even mentioned here, but these 
will serve to show better than can any statistics 
the kind of men Vermont sent to the front. As 
a fitting prelude to the sterner facts of the war 
may be briefly recited the story of William Scott, 
who was condemned to death in the spring of 1862 
for sleeping upon picket duty. Scott was a mem- 
ber of the Third Regiment; his excuse for falling 
asleep was that he had been without rest for two 
nio^hts servino- for a sick comrade, but he was 
chosen as an example to the army. Such cases had 
become too numerous, and the further exercise of 
mercy was deemed prejudicial to discipline. So 
the young soldier would have died an ignoble death 
but for President Lincoln who, on the morning when 
he was to be shot, rode ten miles to see that he 
should not die. Scott's case was quite forgotten 
in a day or two in the presence of vast military 
movements and bloody encounters. It was not 
generally recalled until the day when the First 
Brigade charged upon the rebel rifle pits at Lee's 



248 IN THE FIELD. 

Mills. Among the most intrepid of the men who 
advanced in that storm of pattering bullets was the 
young recruit. When he fell struck by a rebel 
ball, with his dying breath he blessed the President 
for giving him the chance to die like a soldier. 

Some of the hardest fighting of the war was done 
in that spring campaign in which McClellan at- 
tempted to reach the capital of the Confederacy. At 
Lee's Mills four companies of the Third Regiment 
were thrown across a small stream, drove the rebels 
out of the first line of rifle pits and held them 
against overwhelming odds until they were with- 
drawn b)^ an order from headquarters. 

Later in the day four companies of the Sixth 
were ordered to attack precisely the same position 
but were driven back. The frightful losses suffered 
by these two detachments seems to have been a 
mere waste of hiuman life. The brigade took part 
in the rapidly-succeeding engagements of tliat 
sharp cam})aign which was expected to end in the 
capture of Richmond, but which did end in McClel- 
lan's failure and downfall. 

At Savage's Station the Vermont troops, prac- 
tically alone, guarded the retreat of the Union 
armies in a memorable engagement, which has won 
the highest praise from military critics. In the 
fierce fight the Fifth Regiment alone lost two hun- 
dred and six killed, wounded and missing, and the 



IN THE FIELD. 249 

other regiments suffered severely. At Crampton's 
Gap the Fourth and Second regiments made a 
memorable charge, carrying an important position. 
At Antietam the brigade, under the command 
of Gen. W. H. T. Brooks, took, with the Maine 
resfiiTients of Smith, the " historic cornfield " whereon 
the fiercest strug^o-le of that indecisive battle had 
raged. At the first battle of Fredericksburg, though 
it made no dashing charge, it was under fire for 
many hours with heavy loss. 

When the campaign of 1863 opened, the Ver- 
monters again showed their mettle by the spirited 
storming of xMarye's Heights at Fredericksburg, 
than which there was no more brilliant feat durino- 
the war. This attack was shared in by soldiers 
from Maine, New York and New Jersey, but the 
Vermont regiments were about half of the whole 
command. Crossing the stream they swarmed up 
the steep heights under a terrible fire and fairly 
drove the Confederates from their almost impreg- 
nable position. At that time the Vermont boys 
had now been in the field more than a year — 
many of the individual soldiers much longer. The 
brigade, with which one New Jersey regiment was 
now a part, so that it was not wholly composed of 
Vermont men, had by hard fighting on many fields 
won a reputation which even this feat of arms could 
hardly enhance. 



250 IN THE FIELD. 

The veterans had won much glory and what was 
of infinitely more importance, they had done their 
duty well, but the credit of striking the decisive 
blow at the decisive moment of the hard-fought 
and important battle of Gettysburg, the turning- 
point of the civil war, belongs to the Second Ver- 
mont Brigade, then a comparatively new and untried 
body of men. 

The second of July, 1863, was the second day of 
the great battle, the only one fought on Northern 
soil. General Seds^wick commanded the famous 
Sixth army corps. Of this the veteran Vermont 
regiments were a part. On that day he was ordered 
to march thirty miles to Gettysburg in the signifi- 
cant words : " Put the Vermonters ahead and keep 
the column well-closed up." The First Brigade 
was good at forced marches as well as fighting. 
The corps reached the field at evening while the 
battle was still in progress and was placed in a 
position on the Union left of great importance, but 
comparatively little danger, as the event proved. 

On July 3, the final day of the battle, came the 
magnificent charge of Pickett's division upon the 
right centre of the Union army. The battle had 
raged for two days without decisive result. The 
arri\'al of the strong Sixth Corps on the previous 
evening after its famous forced march had greatly 
increased the effective strength of Meade's army, 



IN THE FIELD. 25 1 

and General Lee who commanded in person the 
Confederate troops felt that upon this magnificent 
charge depended the day. The attack was pre- 
ceded by a continuous cannonade of one hundred 
and forty heavy guns, converging for two hours 
upon the point selected. When at last Lee judged 
that the Union lines were sufficiently demoralized 
by the fire and that the ammunition of their bat- 
teries was likely to be low, the great charge was 
made. Seventeen thousand men were flung in a 
solid mass against the Union lines in an unavailing 
attempt to break them. 

That magnificent army was the flower of the Con- 
federate troops, fresh from victorious fields and in- 
spired by the genius of the greatest military leader 
of the South. As it swept across the intervening 
half-mile between the two lines, a part of the Union 
artillery was silent, the ammunition being exhausted 
in the long cannonade, but from the left centre of 
Meade's position a destructive fire came rattling. 
The rebel advance had at first been straight upon 
the place occupied by General Stannard's Second 
Vermont Brigade, but under this heavy fire the 
first portion of the attacking force slightly changed 
its direction exposing its right flank to Stannard's 
command.. It w^as a crisis big with importance. 

The Vermont troops of the Second Brigade were 
not seasoned veterans like those of the First. They 



252 IN THE FIELD. 

were " nine months men " with but little experience 
in field duty ; but at the word of command the Thir- 
teenth and Sixteenth regiments fell upon the Con- 
federate flank with instant effect, leaving the rest of 
the brigade to guard its former position. The Con- 
federate line was thrown into utter confusion by 
this flank charge, and by the stout resistance of the 
Union right. Meanwhile the second section of 
the Confederates* charging force, which had not 
been deflected like the First, was bearino- straio-ht 
upon the Fourteenth Vermont, which for the time 
being was holding the place in line of the entire 
brigade. It was a moment full of danger, but the 
Sixteenth Regiment, perceiving the situation, re- 
formed and charo-ed aoain, this time bearinfj back 
upon the left flank of the Confederates. Tearing 
a road through their lines, they took the colors of 
the Eighth Virginia and the Second Florida, and 
fairly forced a large body of the rebels into the 
Union lines where they were promptly made pris- 
oners. The charge was broken, the army of Lee 
driven back into Virginia, and the loyal State of 
Pennsylvania saved from invasion. 

The importance of the battle of Gettysburg can- 
not be overestimated. The North had been pro- 
foundly moved by the invasion of Pennsylvania, 
which had seemed the most dangerous blow yet 
struck at the Union. The war had lasted two 




'^'^ irfffeiiiiniff'"*"'*'*^-^ 



IN THE FIELD. 255 

years and had cost much blood and treasure, yet 
the Union forces seemed to have made but little 
headway, and when the news came that Lee had 
struck the boldest blow of the war, the North was 
in an agony of suspense. It proved to be the 
proverbial darkest hour before the dawn. 

The victory at Gettysburg drove the Confederate 
forces back to the defensive, it inspired the North 
with confidence, it was the beginning of the end. 
Grant had already won his great victories along 
the Mississippi. The Confederacy was hemmed 
within narrower limits. Its power to harm and its 
resources for resistance were lessened. To have 
rendered so signal a service as did Stannard's brig- 
ade on that day so big with fate is something to be 
remembered. No battle of the war has been more 
discussed and of none are the details more contro- 
verted. It is even a matter for controversy whether 
General Hancock or General Stannard gave the 
command to charsre at the fateful moment, but no 
one has denied or is likely to deny the value of the 
" nine months men " from the Green Mountain 
State at the critical moment on that hard-fought 
field. 

To the Vermont reo-iments of the First Briorade 
was assigned, just after Gettysburg, the peculiar 
duty of repressing the disloyal acts of mobs in New 
York State. The hour of the country's greatest 



2S6 IN THE FIELD. 



peril had roused into hopeful activity those who at 
the North were secretly endeavoring to aid the 
South to success ; the drafting of soldiers had 
aroused the keenest resentment on the part of the 
rabble of a number of Northern cities and espe- 
cially New York. To hold these in check and give 
them if necessary a severe lesson the veterans of 
Vermont were sent North, as men who could be 
relied upon to behave themselves in the face of new 
temptations and act with sobriety and good judg- 
ment in a duty of more than usual delicacy. This 
was an agreeable interruption of the more danger- 
ous work at the front, but it was soon over and the 
Vermonters were again in Virginia in the autumn 
of 1863, with the hardest part of their bloody work 
still before them. 

When General Grant was called from his vic- 
torious career elsewhere to lead the Army of the 
Potomac, the war assumed an aspect even more ter- 
rible than it had yet put on. Grant was a com- 
mander who possessed above all others the quality 
of o-rim and doQ;2;ed determination. His business 
was to win victories, to reach Richmond, to end 
the war, and he rightly judged that any sacrifice 
which should accomplish these objects must be 
borne without flinching. 

The first great sacrifice was offered up at the 
battle of the Wilderness. Into the details of that 



IN THE FIELD. 257 

fio;ht we need not enter. The First Vermont Hrio- 
ade was again placed in a position of the utmost 
importance, that known to students of miHtary his- 
tory as the " old Brock road." Here a thousand 
men fell killed or wounded the first day. Here the 
trees were felled by cannon balls and the thickets 
torn by bullets until the very aspect of that tat- 
tered forest suggested the apparition of gashed 
and mutilated human forms. Here came the fierc- 
est assaults of Lee's forces, strus^orlinQr throuo;h 
the heavy forest growth, to cut Grant's army in two. 
Here fell Colonel Stone of the Vermont Second, 
shot through the thigh. He went to the rear and 
had his wound dressed and returned to the front only 
to fall dead not long after. Lieutenant-Colonel 
Tyler who took his place received a mortal wound. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis of the Fifth was seriously 
wounded. Colonel Barney of the Sixth mortally, 
Colonel Pratt of the Fourth received a disablino- 
bullet in the thigh. Of five colonels of the Ver- 
mont troops three were fatally injured and but one 
was left unhurt. 

On the following day, not disheartened by the 
terrible loss they had sustained, the same troops 
defended against one of the fiercest and most 
determined charges a position of the utmost im- 
portance. In the two days' fighting three fourths 
of the officers were killed or wounded. The hard 



258 IN THE FIELD. 

fighting did not stop with the battle in the Wilder- 
ness. At Spotsylvania the First Brigade suffered 
heavily as usual. At Cold Harbor all the Vermont 
regiments were engaged. At Petersburg nearly 
four hundred men were taken prisoners, more than 
half of them to die in the rebel prisons. One at 
least was torn to pieces by bloodhounds while seek- 
ing to escape. Of those who survived the fearful 
imprisonment many were mere wrecks of men. 

It was when, just after this sad capture, the Ver- 
mont troops had been ordered to Washington to 
meet Early's raid, that President Lincoln made one 
of those remarks which so endeared him to the 
men in the ranks. He had gone to the dock at 
Washino-ton to meet the steamer on which the 
brigade had been expected to arrive, but was in- 
formed that it brought no troops ; only Major-Gen- 
eral Getty and his staff. " I do not care to see any 
major-generals ; I came here to see the Vermont 
Brio-ade," was the President's comment. When 
the regiments finally came, Mr. Lincoln was at hand 
to witness their disembarkation. Then came the 
famous Shenandoah campaign of Sheridan, in which 
the Vermont troops were again engaged and in 
which the Eighth and Tenth regiments distin- 
guished themselves, the former by a bayonet charge 
at Winchester, the latter losing its commander and 
sixty men in the same brilliant and bloody battle. 



IN THE FIELD. 259 

The campaign of 1865 saw the final defeat of 
the Confederacy. Grant's genius had for the first 
time brought success upon the operations of the 
Army of Virginia, navigation on the Mississippi had 
been opened to Union vessels, the Confederate 
ports were blocked, Vicksburg had fallen, Gettys- 
burg had been w^on, Sherman had made his famous 
march to the sea. The final defeat of Lee's army 
meant the downfall of the Confederacy. 

Vermont troops were again found leading the 
van in the great charge upon Petersburg which was 
the decisive blow of the campaign, and Captain 
Charles G. Gould of the Fifth Vermont Regiment 
was probably the first man to enter the rebel 
lines. This was not an accident. It was not an 
accident that the same troops had been placed at 
the post of greatest responsibility and loss in the 
battle of the Wilderness. Grant was a commander 
who did not allow chance to win his battles for 
him. The men of General Wright, who had suc- 
ceeded upon Sedgwick's death to the command of 
the famous Sixth Corps, were selected to lead the 
assault on Petersburg. Getty's division was as- 
signed for the assaulting column, and Getty put the 
Vermont briorade in the van. 

There was no chance in these arrano^ements. 
The brigade was marched a mile along the line 
past many other good regiments, to a point oppo- 



26o IN THE FIELD. 

site the portion of the works selected for the attack, 
and was stationed in the darkness at a point just 
opposite a ravine which broke the enemy's work. 

In the early morning they prepared in silence for 
the assault, well knowing that for many of their 
number that day would be the last. So soon as it 
was light enough to dimly distinguish objects near at 
hand the advance was ordered. The men had been 
under arms in the dark and cold for hours. They 
knew what their orders were -^ to charge without 
firing, to carry the works and to re-form and hold 
their position. Silently until the first half of the 
distance was traversed, then with ringing cheer 
upon cheer as the shots of the rebel pickets dis- 
closed their position, the brigade dashed up the 
slope, the entering wedge of an arm)' of fourteen 
thousand men. The artillery along the Confeder- 
ate line was turned upon them until they passed 
out of range, then the sharp rattle of musketry 
tore great gaps in their ranks, but nothing could 
stop them. They gained the works, carried them 
and turned the guns upon the flying rebels. They 
even followed in pursuit of them, in disobedience 
of orders, and were with difficulty checked and re- 
formed. They captured two rebel regimental fiags 
in the assault and a large amount of war material 
— Vermont troops secured many banners during 
the war, but lost none. 



IN THE FIELD. 26 1 

The charge of the Sixth Corps was but a part of 
the day's action. Other commands were engaged 
at other points and all manfully did their part in 
achieving the signal victory. At Appomattox Court 
House a few days after Lee finally surrendered to 
Grant, and the war was practically over. The 
Sixth Corps was detained in Virginia for some time 
but in June it was disbanded and the Vermonters, 
like the other soldiers North and South, went home 
to meet a welcome such as never men received be- 
fore. Only the Seventh Regiment was detained 
on duty in the Gulf region for about another year. 

The account which has been thus presented is 
but fragmentary and incomplete, neglecting wholly 
many important engagements and scarcely more 
than mentioning others of the utmost importance. 
Nor does it refer to the excellent service of Ver- 
mont men in other departments during the war, in 
the artillery, the cavalry, the navy in the civil ser- 
vice, or of the women in the hospitals. 

The full and complete story of any one of the 
States in the Civil War is of itself matter for a vol- 
ume. So far as it relates to Vermont, the whole 
subject has been covered by the historians of 
that great struggle. Benedict's " Vermont in the 
Civil War," is the authoritative record of the 
troops of the State. Vermont had furnished 
to the Union armies no division commander, no 



2 62 IN THE FIELD. 

tactician of acknowledged supremacy. None of 
its generals reached the highest grades in the ser- 
vice, but its private troops were the best that fought 
in the war on either side, and its re2:imental com- 
manders numbered many men who were spirited 
and judicious leaders, and may have lacked only 
opportunity to demonstrate the possession of still 
higher and more valuable qualities. 

If there was heroism with the troops of Stannard, 
of Brooks and of Phelps at the front, there was 
equal heroism at home. Scarcely a family but had 
sent some member to the front; scarce one in 
the sad later years of the war but mourned the 
death of friends or relatives. The cost was 
2:reat, but there was no shrinkino- from it. The 
crushing weight of taxes was the least of the 
ills to be endured. In the absence of the stronger 
workers, old men who wished they were again young 
enough to fight for their country and lads who 
counted the years until they might be old enough 
struggled along with the women as best they could 
in the work of farm and factory. In preparing 
supplies for the soldiers, in knitting and sewing, 
by nursing in the hospitals, by that hardest task 
of all, which was to bear the loss of their nearest 
and dearest ones without repining and try to think 
that it was all for the best, Vermont's daughters 
showed no less fortitude than her sons. There was 



IN THE FIELD. 



263 



grief everywhere, but little faltering from the stern 
task which had been set for the people of the 
North. 

Vermont's entire quota for 1862 was filled with- 
out recourse to the draft. By 1863 the number 
sent to the front had reached eighteen thousand 
two hundred and twenty-four. In that year, the 
virtual crisis and turning point of the war, the Dem- 
ocratic State Convention fell under Copperhead in- 
fluence. Vermont Democrats as a rule were as 
strong Union men as the Republicans, but in that 
Convention a platform was adopted which declared 
that the liberties of the people were endangered by 
the administration of martial law in loyal States. 
It was the time of 
provost - marshals and 
drafts, and this plat- 
form voiced a senti- 
ment which was not at 
all uncommon in the 
North. The Republi- 
cans retorted with the 
declaration that North- 
ern traitors were de- 
serving of greater re- 
proach than Southern 
rebels, the Democratic 
candidate was snowed for the soldiers, 




264 IN THE FIELD. 

under by a majority exceptional even in war 
times, and from the soldiers at the front came 
an indignant and unanimous protest. Southern 
sympathizers were not popular in Vermont in 
that anxious time and even such comparatively 
mild censure of the conduct of the war was 
bitterly resented. 

It might have been supposed that Vermont, 
separated from the South by hundreds of miles of 
loyal territory and from the sea-coast by the width 
of a State, was not likely to feel the touch of actual 
warfare, yet something much like it visited St. 
Albans in 1864. It was the very crisis of the re- 
bellion and the active men of the town were at the 
front. In addition to this the Legislature was in 
session at Montpelier; and an important court was 
sitting at Burlington. Many of the town's remain- 
ing citizens were at one or the other of these 
places on the rainy Wednesday when the famous 
St. Albans raid occurred. 

It was the nineteenth of October, a date long 
remembered in Northern Vermont, The raiders 
were only twenty-two in number, and they did not 
descend upon the town in a body, but came one or 
two at a time, registering quietly at the hotels and 
finding out the resources of the place for plunder 
and the means of escape it afforded. At three 
o'clock in the afternoon, the raiders simultaneously 



IN THE FIELD. 265 

entered the St. Albans, Franklin County and First 
National banks and compelled the cashiers at the 
pistol's mouth to sit quietly by while they searched 
for the available funds, in their hurry leaving quite 
as much as they found. One of the cashiers was 
locked into his own vault. Meanwhile a number 
of the party kept guard upon the street, aiming to 
prevent all knowledge of the raid from becoming- 
general. Not far away hundreds of men were at 
work in the machine shops of the railroad, and it 
was necessary to the purpose of the raiders that 
they should not be apprised. 

By degrees upon the village green assembled 
quite a number of the citizens who had come along 
the street and been ordered to stand there until 
released. One man when commanded to stop took 
the matter as a joke and was slightly wounded 
by a pistol bullet. When all was ready the raiders 
went to the livery stable nearest at hand and im- 
pressed horses for their flight. By this time the 
alarm had been sounded and men were runnino- to 
the spot armed with clubs and rusty guns which 
would not go off. One of them wounded a raider' 
with a rifle-ball, and in a volley from the band 
E. J. Morrison, a builder, was fatally wounded. 

Away then flew the marauders, carrying with 
them over two hundred thousand dollars in money 
to enrich the coffers of the Confederacy. It was a 



266 IN THE FIELD. 

full hour before pursuit was organized. The men 
were followed to Canada, and after very long and 
vexatious litigation only a part of the money was 
recovered. The pursuing party had actually se- 
cured a portion of the money and taken a number 
of the raiders, but were obliged to liberate their cap- 
tives and restore the plunder by the Canadian 
court, that tribunal announcing that the money was 
taken in actual warfare, and not recoverable on neu- 
tral ground. 

Exaggerated reports of the descent were tele- 
graphed during its progress to other parts of the 
Union and aroused a fever of alarm, partly justified 
by the fact that similar raids had been attempted, 
and were feared elsewhere along the border. It is 
reasonably certain that the Confederate authorities 
sanctioned these plots, and among the men impli- 
cated in that at St. Albans were a number of young- 
men of prominent Southern families. 

The inevitable humorous incidents which accom- 
pany graver events were not lacking in the St. 
Albans raid. In one of the gutted banks was sit- 
ting an old man. With senses somewhat blunted 
by years he remained unmoved during the transfer 
of the bank funds and placidly inquired after the 
raiders had left the room "Who were those gentle- 
men } " i\ farmer coming to town that afternoon 
astride a fine horse was spied bv one of the raiders 



IN THE FIELD. 267 

who was In hot flight upon a jaded steed. A hasty 
and enforced exchange of mounts ensued. Proceed- 
ing on his way to town the farmer soon saw the fran- 
tically-riding pursuers, and, taking them to be an- 
other section of the party that had robbed him, set 
out across the fields at the top of his speed. The 
mistake was mutual and the pursuers, supposing 
him to be one of the robbers, fired at him until he 
was out of sight, fortunately without doing him any 
injury. 

The close of the war was nowhere welcomed 
more gladly than in Vermont, for nowhere had 
greater sacrifices been made. The State had lost 
men and spent money far out of proportion to its 
size and wealth ; its liberal provision for the sol- 
diers had entailed a heavy tax rate, while of the 
^3,600,752.52 spent during the war, more than half 
remained as bonded debt bearino- a high rate of 
interest. The farms had been almost stripped of 
their tillers by war and emigration, and industry 
of all kinds had been dealt a heavy blow. 

The return of the boys in blue and their resump- 
tion of peaceful pursuits with the impetus which 
was given to every branch of production after the 
termination of the war soon began to repair the 
ravages of the long conflict. The people set to 
work with a will, and with such success that the 
census of 1870 showed marked advance and improve- 



268 IN THE FIELD. 

ment over that of i860 in the moral and material 
resources of the State, while the population, in spite 
of the number of soldiers who had perished during 
the war and the emigration which recommenced 
after its close, increased over fifteen thousand. 
Though the panic of 1873 and the succeeding years 
gravely interrupted the prosperous course of affairs, 
the State has continued in the main to thrive in 
the two decades which have passed since the War 
of the Rebellion closed. 



CHAPTER XII. 



SINCE THE WAR, 




HE heroism of war 
seldom fails to win 
admiring comment 
and appreciation. 
{ Songs are written 
upon it, stories told of 
it, grave historians ex- 
amine each minute de- 
tail, and every well- 
fought battle, desper- 
ate charge or stout resistance goes upon record for 
the most remote generations. The heroism of 
peace is taken as a matter of course and few trouble 
themselves to inquire into it or tell its story. No 
flags are waved over it, no bugle blasts inspire it, 
the newspapers do not publish highly-colored ac- 
counts of it under flaring head-lines. Yet it is none 
the less heroic. 

There was nothing in the conduct of the civil 
war on either side that more significantly displayed 

the spirit and courage of the people than the way 

269 



270 SINCE THE WAR. 

in which those great armies which had faced each 
other for years dissolved again, and the soldiers 
dispersed to their widely-scattered homes and took 
up their unaccustomed tasks. Not only was this 
done without complaint or serious disorder, but 
such energy was displayed, such hard work done, 
such faith in the finality of the solution of vexed 
problems shown, that the material ravages of war 
were effaced and its frightful waste repaired in far 
less time than would have seemed possible. The 
qualities by which this mighty task was accom- 
plished were no less heroic than those which the 
soldier displayed in battle. There was no State 
in which circumstances made the task harder than 
in Vermont, and none in which it was faced with 
more zeal and accomplished with greater relative 
success. 

The generosity of the State in dealing with its 
soldiers had saddled it with a heavy debt, bearing 
a high rate of interest. The yearly expenses of the 
Government were not large, but in addition to these 
charges Vermont had to bear its proportion of the 
enormous national indebtedness. Taxation en- 
hanced the price of most commodities bought by 
the State and of few that it sold. The necessities 
of the general government, and the imperative de- 
mand for money to meet its obligations compelled 
the imposition of a heavy duty and the raising of 



SINCE THE WAR. 271 

money by numerous vexatious internal revenue 
taxes since dispensed with. A depreciated currency 
unsettled trade and prompted to wild speculation. 

Simultaneously with these disadvantages were 
others peculiar to the State, and scarcely shared in 
by its neighbors. For over thirty years its popula- 
tion had grown but slowly and the more vigorous of 
its young men and women had been constantly leav- 
ing it for the cities and the West. In many coun- 
try districts the population was scarce half what it 
had been in 1840. War had completed the work 
of emigration. The troops of Vermont had suffered 
as no others had done and the hands that had 
guided the plow and plied the hammer were sadly 
missed. 

The tide of migration to the great West not only 
remained unchecked during the period following 
the war. It was accelerated by the bountiful home- 
stead act which gave free land to every settler who 
asked it, and by the extension of Government aid 
to the Pacific railroads. The astounding develop- 
ment of the land-grant railroads brought into 
direct competition with Vermont the countless acres 
of the West beyond the Mississippi, as the canal 
had done for the nearer West. Never was compe- 
tition more unequal. The plain against the mount- 
ains, a mild climate against a severe one, cheap land 
against dear land, the ranch against the farm. Even 



272 SINCE THE WAR. 

the one element that favored Vermont — Its com- 
parative nearness to the markets on the Atlantic 
seaboard — was largely offset by the favoritism of 
the competing trunk lines of railroad, each eagerly 
striving to secure its share or more of through 
traffic and taxing local freight to furnish the sinews 
of destructive cut-rate wars. The wool grower of 
Ohio or Texas, the dairy farmer of Michigan, the 
corn raiser of Illinois, the wheat farmer of Dakota 
and Minnesota and the cattle herder of regions 
even farther West were largely relieved by this 
railroad rivalry from the legitimate disadvantage of 
their position. 

That the people of Vermont should have made 
head against these odds at all was sufficiently to 
their credit. But they have not only done this ; they 
have made material advance in almost every direc- 
tion. It has been done by the utmost economy of 
production, by the free use of improved appliances 
and by especial care to better the quality of goods 
marketed — in a word, by the exercise of Yankee 
thrift and shrewdness. 

Ao:riculture has remained the State's chief in- 
dustry and has thriven beyond all others. The 
total value of the farms of the State has not greatly 
increased since i860, but the value and quantity of 
annual product has grown larger. Milch cattle in- 
creased in number from 174,66710 217,033. The 



SINCE THE WAR. 



27. 



yield of butter in 1880 had more than doubled since 
1850, and that of cheese greatly decreased, the 
total value of the two being much larger. Vermont 
was the thirty-second State in the order of her popu- 
lation in 1880, but the value of her milk products 
was only surpassed by twelve others. This result 




NIVnnSITY-VERnojXfT^BviLDiNQ 



was unquestionably largely the result of the factory 
system — practically a development of the period 
since the war. 

It has been found by experience that factory-made 
butter and cheese command a higher price than 
domestic, and there is far less cost and waste in 



2 74 SINCE THE WAR. 

their manufacture. Those farmers and farmers' 
wives who still continue to make butter and cheese 
at home are the exception rather than the rule. 
At the factory all the hard work is done by ma- 
chinery, and the milk of from four hundred to twelve 
hundred cows is cared for easily. Thus one of the 
most important industries of the State has become 
an exact science to its great advantage in many 
ways; not the least of these is the lightening of tlie 
labors of farmers' wives and daus^hters. The man- 
ufacture of butter and cheese has been injured 
of late years by the introduction of spurious 
imitations, but it is hoped that repressive legisla- 
tion will give honest dairy products. 

The formation, in the early part of 1888, of a 
State Board of Trade in the interest of the makers 
of butter, cheese and maple sugar is another agency 
from which good results are expected. The adul- 
teration of maple sugar has been a serious blow at 
one of the chief industries of Vermont, and one that 
has increased in value under improved methods 
even more rapidly than the dairy business. The 
quantity of sugar made has about doubled since 
1850; its estimated value was in 1888 one mil- 
lion two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or 
forty-two dollars to each farm in the State. 

The wasteful methods of old-fashioned sugar- 
makers have been entirely replaced by better ones. 



SINCE THE WAR. 275 

The trees are tapped sparingly with small auger 
holes, buckets of tin and spouts of tin or galvanized 
iron are used and the sap is boiled under shelter in 
flat evaporating pans, with much saving of fuel. 

The lumber product of the forests of the State 
was very large during the period we are consider- 
ing, and Burlington has remained one of the chief 
lumber centres of the Union. Only eighteen States 
surpassed Vermont in the quantity and value of 
lumber cut in 1880. 

The wool clip of Vermont has decreased since 
1850, but the value of the sheep of the State has 
in all probability advanced. The choice breeds of 
fine wooled sheep raised in Vermont are surpassed 
nowhere in the world, if indeed they are anywhere 
equalled. They have found a market at fancy 
prices all over the United States and even at the 
antipodes. The earliest consignments of them to 
Australia were refused admittance on the pretext 
that they were diseased; the real reason probably 
being that the local breeders were jealous. Subse- 
quent importations however, were more hospitably 
received. 

The wool and sheep-breeding industry suffered 
somewhat by the tariff revision of 1883 and the 
farmers have never ceased to demand the re-enact- 
ment of the Morrill tariff of 1867 and to resist any 
advances toward placing wool upon the free list. 



276 SINCE THE WAR. 

A few sheep have been sent to South America. 
To the same distant quarter of the woricl Vermont 
horses have also been consigned. 

The number of horses sold from the State has 
always been large. The census of 18S0 showed an 
increase of about six thousand in the number since 
i860, but the business of horse-breeding has greatly 
increased since the census year in consequence of 
the low price of butter and cheese. Fine-blooded 
cattle also represent a large and growing value in 
the State. Minor agricultural products are numer- 
ous. The State is seventh in its yield of hops, 
though it has no breweries. Bees are kept in 
large numbers and considerable honey is sold. 
Oats, barley and potatoes are raised in abundance ; 
the coarser vegetables are produced for consump- 
tion by cattle, the finer varieties for table use and 
cannino:. Vermont's fruit is limited in variety bu-t 
plentiful, especially west of the mountains ; the 
State in this respect being rather better off than 
the average. 

Manufactures also increased largely in the years 
which followed the war. The total number em- 
ployed rose from 10,497 i^"* 1S60 to 17,540 in 1880, 
and probably in about the same proportion after 
that date. The increase in the value of the product 
was more than one hundred per cent. As might be 
expected of a State where agriculture is so success- 



SINCE THE WAR. 2"] J 

fully carried on, the manufacture of improved farm- 
ing and dairy implements is a thriving one. Fac- 
tories of parlor organs and scales, of sash and 
blinds and wagons, iron foundries, machine-shops 
and paper mills are among the most prominent. 
Steam has supplemented the water power, without 
supplanting it, and these industries are in a nor- 
mally healthy condition with every promise of 
future prosperity. 

Akin to the manufactures are the quarries. 
These have grown so enormously since the canal 
and railroads began to furnish transportation that in 
1880 only two States, New York and Pennsylvania, 
surpassed Vermont in the capital invested and 
the value of annual product. Since that year the 
ratio of increase has been well maintained. 

The political history of the period since the war 
has been singularly uneventful. It can almost be 
summed up in a sentence. There has been for 
twenty-eight years no Democratic Governor elected 
and but one Democratic Congressman, while for 
every Republican Presidential candidate an over- 
whelming majority has been cast. 

The State has been admirably represented in the 
United States Senate during practically the whole 
period since the war by Morrill and Edmunds. In 
the lower House it has placed such men as 
Willard, Hendee, Denison, Joyce, Tyler, Grout, 



278 SINCE THE WAR. 

Poland and Stewart. The representatives of Ver- 
mont have borne a conspicuous part in national 
legislation and the two senators especially have 
exercised far more influence than is usual with 
the representatives of so small a State. 

Senator Edmunds was in 1880 and again in 1884 
pressed as a Presidential candidate for the Repub- 
lican nomination. On both occasions he had the 
support of a united delegation from Vermont and 
a strong following from other States. Had Ver- 
mont been a larger State, or a "doubtful " one, its 
claims upon a nominating convention might have 
met with more success. 

Though in so evident a minority, the Democratic 
party of the State is a vigorous and active body of 
men. The victory of that party in the Presidential 
election of 1884 brought many representative Ver- 
mont Democrats into the service of the Government. 
The most prominent of these was Prof. E. J. 
Phelps, appointed to the most important foreign 
mission in the gift of the President, that of Minister 
at the Court of St. James. 

The legislative history of the State since the war 
is full of interest. It gives the key to the character 
of the people and their law-makers. The greater 
portion of the legislators are to-day, as the}' have 
always been, farmers. They are plain, straightfor- 
v/ard men and, as the record shows, do the business 



SINCE THE WAR. 279 

for which they are elected in a creditable manner. 
The work of the legislative session is always fin- 
ished in about half the time consumed in Massa- 
chusetts or New York, even since the sessions were 
made biennial by the last revision of the Constitu- 
tion ; the session laws for two years, though in- 
cluding a deal of important legislation, are easily 
comprised in a modest volume. The law-makers of 
the State have faced the problems which have con- 
fronted them in a manner usually bold, commonly 
sensible and always well meant and carefully con- 
sidered. They found Vermont burdened by a 
heavy war debt and its credit impaired ; they so 
restored public confidence in their purpose and 
ability to pay that when, in the panic of 1873, the 
Secretary of the State desired to buy its bonds he 
could find a willing seller no nearer than Baltimore; 
a few years later the debt was practically paid. 

After the panic and the shrinkage of values 
caused six years later by the resumption of specie 
payment, the expenses of administration became 
onerous ; they were promptly cut down. The de- 
nuded hills demanded notice ; they received it from 
a Forestry Commission organized by the Legis- 
lature, whose duty it was to consider how the evils 
caused by the destruction of timber were to be 
remedied. Child labor in factories forced itself 
upon attention as a growing evil ; it was speedily 



2 So SINCE THE WAR. 

prohibited. Illiteracy became in some measure 
a reproach, mainly owing to immigration ; a 
stringent compulsory education act was passed 
which is expected in time to effect a great im- 
provement. The morals and education of young 
criminals needed special care ; a State Reform 
School was established. The frequency of divorces 
commented upon the unsatisfactory nature of the 
laws governing the subject ; these were amended 
to such purpose that in 1S87 the number and pro- 
portion of divorces had greatly decreased. 

The increase of the practice of counterfeiting 
butter and cheese and of adulterating honey with 
glucose was met with repressive legislation. The 
altered conditions of modern life evoked laws in- 
creasing the property rights of women. The pro- 
tection of (jame and fish from total extermination 
was made the object of a series of enactments, the 
planting of shade trees was encouraged and a pre- 
mium was placed upon thrift by the exemption 
from taxation of savings-bank deposits up to the 
value of fifteen hundred dollars. 

In 1869, in accordance with the curious provision 
of the old Constitution, the Council of Censors met 
and proposed amendments to the Constitution to be 
considered by the convention held the following- 
year. One of the proposed amendments which 
was not ratified was the followino": "Hereafter 






4 



%, \ 



r 

r \ 



Tl 







SINCE THE WAR. 283 

women shall be entitled to vote and with no other 
restrictions than the law shall impose on men." 
Other amendments fared better. The organic 
law of the State was amended in several important 
particulars, the most noticeable being the provision 
already referred to that thereafter the State elec- 
tions and sessions of the Legislature should be bien- 
nial and held on the even years. The Council of 
Censors was abolished and a provision substituted 
that every two years the Legislature might pass an 
amendment which should become part of the or- 
ganic law upon its re-passage by the succeeding 
Legislature and its indorsement by the people at 
the polls. This provision is sufficiently conserva- 
tive ; it places nearly four years between the pro- 
posal of an amendment and its final adoption, 
while it is at the same time sufficiently elastic 
to suit the needs of a progressive people. The 
plan for the biennial sessions of the Legislature 
works admirably; already it has been favorably 
urged upon the consideration of other States. 

Two constitutional amendments were adopted 
under the new plan in 1880, one providing that 
United States officials should not be elioible as 
legislators, the other that the Secretary of State 
should thereafter be elected by the people instead 
of by the Legislature, as had been the custom from 
the earliest time. The legislatures of 1884 and 



284 SINCE THE WAR. 

1 886 passed, in addition to the measures already 
referred to, a law compelling the presence in court 
of the libelee in divorce proceedings, another re- 
quiring the attendance of the State's attorney to 
represent its interests, another raising the Gov- 
ernor's salary to fifteen hundred dollars per annum 
and still another appropriating money for the pur- 
chase of land and the erection on the field of 
Gettysburg of a monument to the courage of Ver- 
mont's sons. They petitioned Congress for the 
enactment of an inter-State commerce law, passed 
almost unanimously a resolution favoring the policy 
of protection to American industries and author- 
ized the establishment of kindergartens in public 
schools — acts whose character may serve to illus- 
trate the trend of opinion and action in the State. 
The population increased very slowly from 1S70 
to 1880, It gained in those ten years less than two 
thousand, and there is no reason to suppose that 
there has been any marked increase since the enu- 
meration.* The same census, however, cast a 
flood of light upon the cause of this slow increase. 
Vermont has done proportionally more than any 
other State to people the West and the cities. In 
1880 there were 332,286 people in the State, 
251,112 of whom were native Vermonters, and 



♦The estimate for iSSS supplied by the Governor of the State showed a population of 
336,000 as against 332,286 in iSSo. — Ed. 



SINCE THE WAR. 285 

81,174 natives of other States or countries. But 
there were no less than 177,576 natives of Vermont 
living in other States, making the total number of 
people of Vermont birth in the Union 428,688, 
and showing that the State has yielded up to other 
localities one hundred thousand people in excess 
of its gain by immigration. Forty-one per cent, of 
those of Vermont birth were living in other States, 
New York having 31,130, Massachusetts 26,869, 
Illinois 14,568, Michigan 12,588, Wisconsin 12,553, 
Iowa 12,288 and other States and Territories in 
smaller numbers. 

The character of these emigrants to other States 
cannot be better illustrated than by the fact that in 
the Fiftieth Congress, in which Vermont was en- 
titled by appointment to but two Representatives, no 
less than five men who were born in Vermont sat 
as Congressmen from other States. Of these 
former Vermonters one was from Minnesota, two 
from New York and two from Wisconsin, the 
latter State being also represented by a Senator 
born in Vermont. In the States where men of 
Vermont birth are most numerous, they are found 
in places of high regard and usefulness. 

Yet the wealth of the State has grown in spite 
of the continual drain. The Les^islature of 1882 
passed an act requiring assessors thereafter to re- 
turn real estate at its actual value. The new total 



286 SINCE THE WAR. 

of real and personal property — still an under- 
estimate, especially with respect to the latter class 
— gave the property in the State as $164,063,689. 
The census returns of 18S0 showed that there were 
more holders of Government bonds in Vermont 
than in many larger States, ten only surpassing 
her. And the savings bank report of 1887 showed 
that on June 30 of that year there were 53,810 
deposits aggregating $15,587,950.93 — an average 
of $289.67 per deposit, or over forty dollars for 
each person in the State. Vermont, too, holds the 
proud position of being burdened with no State 
debt, where other commonwealths have crowded 
their indebtedness away into the millions.* 

The increase in wealth is wholly in the cities and 
larger villages, the value of the farms having in 
many instances greatly decreased since 1830. The 
estimates of the value of new buildings erected in 
a number of the larger places for 1S86 and 1887 
ran about as follows : Brattleborough, $400,000 ; 
Bellows Falls, $350,000; Barre, $200,000; Rutland, 
$400,000; Bennington, in 1887 alone, $100,000; 
Burlington, $225,000 in 1886, and $400,000 in 1887. 

These figures may fall far short of absolute cor- 
rectness, but it is safe to assume from them that 
these and other towns have enjoyed a very material 



*Tn 1SS8 but lliree States in the Union wore free of debt — Illinois, Wisconsin and 
Vermont. 



SINCE THE WAR. 287 

increase in wealth and business. The progressive 
character of the larger villages was during the same 
period illustrated by the introduction of systems of 
public water supply and sewerage and by their ready 
adoption first of gas and next of electricity as a 
means of lighting the streets. Village improve- 
ment societies have played an important part in 
educating and directing public taste and securing 
the wise expenditure of money in planting trees, 
laying out parks and otherwise improving the 
appearance of the villages. 

The virtue of patriotism has not been forgotten. 
The militia has been decreased in recent years to a 
single regiment, which yet is wholly adequate to 
the task of preserving order within the State. 
Should any occasion for national defense arise, the 
people would be found as willing to respond to it 
as they were in 1861. Their appreciation of the 
valor of the Green Mountain Boys was proved in 
1877 at the centennial anniversary of the battle of 
Bennington, when so many thousands of them 
gathered to witness the imposing ceremonials of the 
celebration of that event. Arrangements have been 
since perfected and money collected to erect a mon- 
ument on that historic battlefield. In the entire 
period since the war there has been no serious riot 
or disturbance except the threatened Fenian inva- 
sion of Canada in 1870. 



288 SINCE THE WAR. 

Educational matters continue to attract much 
attention. The schools and colleges have pros- 
pered since the war, and the expenditure of public 
money for instruction has been upon a liberal 
scale in proportion to the State's resources. In 
the farming towns the schools suffer from the de- 
crease in the number of pupils, but on the whole 
they are fairly well supported. In the larger towns 
seminaries and academies supplement the work of 
the common schools, nor is it necessary, even for a 
collegiate education of the very highest rank, to 
send the children of the State beyond its bound- 
aries. 

Middlebury College, founded in 1800 by the Con- 
gregationalist denomination, is one of the oldest 
and most useful institutions of learning in the 
country. It had graduated in the classical depart- 
ment, up to 1888, twelve hundred and ninety-two 
students, among wliom were such men as Governor 
Silas Wright of New York, the Rev. Dr. Stephen 
Olin, Joseph Battell, the donor of Battell Chapel, 
Yale College, Dr. Henry Smith of Lane Seminary, 
John G. Saxe the poet, the Rev. Dr. Post of St. 
Louis, Henry N. Hudson, the Shakespearean editor, 
Edward J. Phelps, United States Minister to Great 
Britain, Stephen A.Walker, United States District 
Attorney of New York City, Railroad Commis- 
sioner Aldace F. Walker and J. S. Grinnell, }niblic 



SINCE THE WAR. 289 

prosecutor of Chicago, whose memorable trial of 
the anarchists will be long remembered. 

The college has about two hundred and twenty- 
five thousand dollars in productive investments, 
good buildings and a fine library and has a consid- 
erable income from tuition fees. Its future, to 
quote the words of President Ezra Brainerd, "is 
looking better than it has at any time since the 
Civil War, when most of the students enlisted." A 
law school is connected with the college. 

The State University at Burlington was opened 
also in 1800, though it is to the credit of the people 
of Vermont that it was projected long before. A 
portion of land from each town grant was reserved 
for its benefit as early as 1778, but during the 
discussion of the project for uniting a portion of 
New Hampshire to Vermont, Dartmouth College 
was considered the State University. Though the 
University had at the start a handsome endowment 
of money and some twenty-nine thousand acres 
of land it did not prosper uniformly. Bad luck 
pursued it. The buildings were occupied by the 
United States army during part of the War of 181 2 
and the sessions wholly interrupted. The school 
did not for some years recover the standing which 
it should have enjoyed, and in 1824 its main build- 
ing was burned. Lafayette laid the corner stone of 
the new building during his memorable visit in 



290 SINCE THE WAR. 

1825 and since then the school has thriven more in 
proportion to its merits. 

A medical college was established in connection 
with the University in 1822 and an agricultural 
course of study, added since the war, offers training 
of a special value to farmers. In the winter courses 
of lectures on agriculture are given to the farmers 
of the State as well as to the students and these 
through intelligent newspaper reports are made 
public property. A farm and experiment station 
recently authorized by the Legislature and pur- 
chased in 1888 is the most recently acquired ad- 
vantage which the University offers. It numbers 
among its graduates such men as Zadock Thompson 
the historian, Alden B. Spooner, Governors Redfield 
and Dillingham and Benjamin H. Smalley. 

In the work of education there are other agen- 
cies scarcely less potent than schools and colleges. 
Among these must be reckoned a shrewd and en- 
terprising newspaper press, alert in the discussion 
of public problems, and this advantage Vermont 
enjoys. It has numerous libraries also.- The State 
Library at the Capitol was in 1886 completed, with 
space for seventy thousand volumes ; the Brooks 
Library at Brattleborough was opened in 1888 and 
there are many others of even longer usefulness. 

The churches, too, are well supported. The 
Catholic denomination is not so numerous as in 



SINCE THE WAR. 291 

New York or Massachusetts, but includes practi- 
cally all the growing French-Canadian element. Of 
the Protestant denominations the Congregational 
was the first to obtain a footing in the State and is 
still the most numerous. Next in order come the 
Baptists and Methodists, with Universalists and 
Episcopalians in about equal numbers and other 
sects in smaller proportions. In many of the farm- 
ing towns the decrease of the population and the 
effect of sect hostility in keeping four or five 
churches barely alive where one or two might be 
better supported, have unfavorably affected relig- 
ious interests, but on the whole the condition of 
the churches is eminently satisfactory. 

A popular phrase which is not quite just to New 
England refers to that part of the Union as "a 
good place — to go away from." This saying, born 
of the arrogance of rapid material growth in the 
newer States, is sometimes echoed even by New 
Englanders. Narrowing the inquiry to Vermont, 
is it true ? Is not that State a orood one in which 
to live, to bring up children, to make business in- 
vestments ? What are the advantages which the 
State offers to its people ? In the second century 
of its Statehood, is it to continue to grow in pros- 
perity and attractiveness } What promise does the 
present give of future usefulness } 

The Vermont of to-day is in many ways an ex- 



292 SINCE THE WAR. 

ceptionally favored State. Even in material things 
it faces a future bright with promise. It will never 
attain the enormous aggregate wealth of such States 
as New York and Pennsylvania, but its wealth is 
well distributed. There are relatively few of the 
very rich and of the very poor. The people are 
mostly of that great middle class which, removed 
from the fear of penury on the one hand and from 
the temptations of afifluence on the other, forms 
the hope and stay of any republic. The property 
owned in the State is increasing slowly but surely, 
and year by year the advantages and conveniences 
which the general prosperity rather than individual 
affluence affords to a commonwealth are more 
widely extended. 

The farming population of the State is growing 
less numerous, but this in itself is no cause for sur- 
prise or possibly even of regret, since in spite of it 
the farm productions are increasing. It does not 
take so many men to till the acres of the State 
as before the introduction of the mowing-machine 
and horse-rake and before tlie substitution of dairy 
farmino- or breedino; for o-rain raisino-. The de- 
population in the rural districts must move more 
slowly in the future; at no distant period it must 
cease altogether. Alrcad\' tlie choicest portions of 
the Western country arc occupied and land is sold 
at prices as high as those obtained in Vermont. 



SINCE THE WAR. 



293 



The principle of the regulation of the freight 
charges of railroads by the Government, established 
in the Inter-State Commerce law and certain to be 
extended in future legislation, will give the East 
as compared with the far West just freight rates 
to the markets ; the increasing number of farmers 
in the State who find more profit in cultivating 
a few acres well than a large number in a careless 
and wasteful fashion is another agency tending to 
counteract the lessening of farm population. 

The manufactures of the State are in even more 
promising condition than its agriculture. Ver- 
mont's pure and healthful climate, the abundance 
of transportation facilities, the cheapness of land 
for sites of factories and 
operatives' homes and 
the low cost of stone 
and lumber for build- 
ins; are all elements 
which promise contin- 
ual growth of the man- 
ufacturing industry, 
particularly in the 
direction of workino- 
up the metal and wood 
products of the State. 
Its mineral wealth in 
marble and limestone, 




k^ke (^ k^J^vBl^iTx 



294 SINCE THE WAR. 

in granite, slate, talc, soapstone and iron is in no 
danger of lacking capital for its development, so 
manifest are the attractions offered. 

The natural advantages of the State have of late 
years brought to it an increasing number of city- 
people in search of quiet and congenial homes in 
the country, either for the whole year or for the 
summer months. These residents bid fair in time 
to add no inconsiderable element to the popula- 
tion of the State and to measurably increase its 
resources. In common with those in the Berk- 
shire hills of Massachusetts Vermont farms are 
purchased in considerable numbers to form fine 
country places; some rise in the value of land from 
this cause is in the more favored spots to be 
expected. 

The State is indeed singularly adapted by nat- 
ure for the residence of people of refined tastes and 
a liking for natural beauties. Its death rate is low, 
its lake and river valleys present glimpses of pict- 
uresque beauty, while its mountain scenery, every- 
where fine, rises to the pitch of grandeur at Mount 
Mansfield, than which New England has no more 
beautiful peak. The hills of the State in many 
places suffered greatly in appearance and useful- 
ness by the shorsightedness of many of the early 
settlers who cut the trees bare from their rounded 
tops, only to find after years of sad experience that 



SINCE THE WAR. 295 

the wealth of the soil on their steep slopes leached 
away in the heavy rains, leaving the ground arid 
and unfruitful. The evil is one that tends to cor- 
rect itself, however, and many of the hill tops are 
reclothinor themselves with the forest under the 
wholesome nes^lect of the owners. 

In many parts of the State fewer acres are under 
cultivation than in 1840, not at all to the ultimate 
disadvantage of the people ; not a few towns and 
settlements, early planted on commanding hill- 
tops, have been removed bodily to more sheltered 
positions in the valleys, leaving their former sites 
to be ao;ain covered with trees. The streams of 
the State, broken by picturesque falls and rapids, 
its springs of pure, sparkling water, its lakes, its 
mingled forest and meadow and intervale, its pure 
air, clear sky and tempered summer heat make it, 
for at least a great portion of the year, a place rich 
in delights. 

Even the winters, though severe, are wholesome 
and enjoyable to those in vigorous health. The 
dry air renders a like degree of cold much less dis- 
agreeable than on the sea-coast, so that the low 
readings of the thermometer do not indicate a cli- 
mate at all rigorous. The hills break the force of 
the wind which causes such fearful havoc in many 
parts of the country; the snow and ice facilitate 
rather than impede the work of farm life, besides 



296 SINCE THE WAR. 

lending themselves to healthy winter amusements. 

The story of Vermont since the Civil War is a 
long and interesting one. A single chapter can 
but hint at what has been done and what has hap- 
pened in a few of many directions. Some of the 
events of the period are too recent to need recount- 
ing, others cannot be adequately discussed until time 
has shown their full effect, and yet others might 
be told were space not lacking. 

But the passing glimpse which we have taken 
of its latest years do not show it as a stagnant or 
an unprogressive commonwealth. Though almost 
stationary in population, of slow growth in wealth, 
and lying remote from the nation's great arteries 
of trade and centres of arts and commerce, Ver- 
mont has made itself felt in the union of States by 
a quiet example, honest methods and stalwart men. 
In all estimates which are based on comparative 
bigness it is and will be quite overborne by giants 
of younger and lustier growth, but its people are, 
as they have always been, among the most intelli- 
gent and progressive citizens of the Republic. 

Whether within the State upholding its indus- 
tries and building its institutions, or transplanted 
-to others and there leavening the heterogeneous 
mass of raw humanity with the homely virtues, 
quick intelligence and sturdy energy of the Green 
Mountains, the children of Vermont are its chief 



SINCE THE WAR. 297 

pride and possession. They, and their children 
learning from them of their birthplace, have per- 
petuated wherever they have gone the traditions of 
the State and have retained its blunt honesty and 
unshaken patriotism. 

For wherever their land or lot, they carry ever in 
their hearts a deep-rooted affection for the home of 
their fathers — the rugged, picturesque and fruitful 
Commonwealth which, from the fair shores of 
Memphremagog to the Massachusetts line, is alive 
with stirring memories of the days gone by, when 
men and women of unsullied name and homely 
ways counted for so much in the building of a 
nation. The people of such a State are its best 
gift and product to the world, and their future 
achievements like their past, will fill the bright- 
est pages of the story of Vermont when it is told 
to the end. 



THE STORY OF VERMONT. 

TOLD IN CHRONOLOGICAL EPITOME. 

There is scarcely a State or section of the American Union that does 
not disclose under the careful study of the archaeologist evidences of great 
antiquity. The Green Mountain State is no exception. 

THE ERA OF BEGINNINGS. 

Far back in the misty and prehistoric past Vermont was the home of 
busy workers. They antedate the roaming and fighting Indian tribes ; they 
link the present to the days of monstrous beasts and vast geologic up- 
heavals. Discoveries of pottery and rude weapons in the State are, as the 
Marquis de Nadaillac observes, "the imperishable witnesses of men, the 
very memory of whom has been completely lost to those who succeeded 
them." These successors were, without doubt, the so-called "Mound- 
Builders." The great vases that have been unearthed, some of them 
capable of holding over six gallons, the copper tubes, skillfully beaten and 
rolled, disinterred from the remains of dead forests at Swanton and the 
sculptured stones also found at the same place indicate the occupation of 
Vermont by those patient and indefatigable workers of the long-ago. When 
they were scattered and driven westward by the assaults of a relentless 
savagery to them succeeded the thousand years of Indian occupation, 
during the closing days of which time Alogonquin and Iroquois made it 
the dark and bloody ground of savage war. 

THE ERA OF DISCOVERY. 

That the American continent was probably visited by European navigators 
before Columbus is now generally conceded by those who have examined 
the evidence. That Hudson was not the first to enter New York bay is as 
certain as it is likely that Cartier was preceded by other white men in ex- 
ploring the Northern waters. But though the coast of the whole continent 
and many of its navigable bays and rivers had been seen by adventurous 
mariners from across the Atlantic, by Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dutchmen and 
Englishmen, no European explorer it is asserted penetrated far enough 
into the wilderness to reach Vermont until well within the seventeenth cent- 
ury. What the State then became to the whites it had long been to the 
native tribes, the scene of desperate combat, sudden surprises and bloody 

299 



ERA OF COLONIZATION. 



reprisals rather than of permanent residence. It was debatable ground, a 
dangerous frontier between hostile tribes. So Champlain found it ; so, tra- 
dition ran among his Indian friends, it had been for many years before 
his coming. With Champlain the history of the State really commences, 
though it was a part of the territory claimed for the King of France by 
Cartier in 1535. 

i6og. Samuel de Champlain explored the lake named for him and upon 
its western bank defeated the Iroquois — July 29. Henry Hudson explored 
the North River to Albany. 

1620. Landing of the Pilgrims. 

1623. Settlement of Albany. 

1627. Grant to Massachusetts colony of land reaching westward to the 
Pacific and including much of New Hampshire and Vermont. 

1629. Grant to Mason of New Hampshire covering a portion of the pre- 
ceding territory. 

1636. Settlement of Springfield, Mass. 

1650. Provisional settlement of New York's Connecticut boundary in- 
volving that of Vermont. 

1654. Northampton, Mass., settled. 

1656. The Connecticut boundary arrangement ratified by Holland. 

THE ERA OF COLONIZATION. 

1664. New York conquered by the British. The grant to the Duke of 
York, afterward said to include Vermont. The claim eastward to the Con- 
necticut River abandoned so far as concerned Connecticut colony. (The 
line was afterward the subject of dispute and rearrangement, but was not 
greatly changed until 1700 and 1731.) 

1670. Deerfield settled. 

1690. The raid on Schenectady. 

1697. The peace of Ryswick. 

1702. " Queen Anne's War" begun. 

1704. The raid upon Deerfield and the retreat through Vermont. 

1709. Failure of Montreal expedition. 

1713. The peace of Utrecht. 

1714. Northfield settled on the Vermont boundary. 

1715. " Equivalent lands " in Vermont granted by Massachusetts to 
Connecticut. 

1724. Building of Fort Dummer in Vermont by Massachusetts. 

1730. French settlement at Chimney Point, Addison, Vt. 

1731. Building of Fort Frederic (Crown Point) by the French. 
1736. Township No. i (Westminster) granted by Massachusetts. 

1739. Grant of Walloomsack. 

1740. The southern boundary of New Hampshire fixed, after more than 
a century of dispute, as it now stands. This involved the southern boun- 
dary of Vermont also in after disputes. 



ERA OF DISPUTE. 301 



1741. Benning Wentworth made Governor of New Hampshire with 
power to make grants west of the Connecticut. 

1744. " King George's War " with France. " Fort Massachusetts " 
erected at Williamstown. 

1745. French and Indian raid upon Saratoga. Capture of Louisbourg. 

1748. The treaty of Aix la Chapelle. 

THE ERA OF DISPUTE. 

1749. Grant of Bennington to speculators by Governor Wentworth. 

1750. Gov. Clinton of New York protests and an arrangement is 
made to submit the boundary question to the king. 

1753. The New York and Massachusetts boundary disputed. 

1754. The French and Indian war begun. 

1755. Military expedition against Nova Scotia. Braddock's defeat. 
Gen. Johnson defeats Dieskau with much loss on both sides and erects Fort 
William Henry at the foot of Lake George. 

1756. The formal declaration of war. Montcalm captures Oswego. The 
summer wasted by the British. 

1757. The capture of Fort William Henry and massacre of a portion of 
its garrison. 

1758. Louisbourg again captured. An unsuccessful attempt to drive the 
French fi^om Lake Champlain. 

1759. Ticonderoga and Crown Point taken. Wolfe captures Quebec. 
Niagara taken by the British. 

1760. Montreal taken and war practically closed. 

1760 — 1763. Many grants of townships made by Gov. Wentworth. 

1761. Bennington settled. Pioneers pouring into Vermont very rapidly 
under the authority of New Hampshire. 

1763. The formal peace between England and France. The northern 
boundary of New York with Canada (involving Vermont's) fixed at 45 
degrees north. Colden puts forth the claim of New York. 

1764. The king finally decides the Connecticut " to be " the eastern 
boundary of New York. Quibble upon the words " to be." 

1765. Lieut. Gov. Colden's proclamation annexing Vermont to New 
York. The issuing of New York patents begun. The Stamp Act goes into 
effect — November r. 

1766. The Stamp Act repealed. The New Hampshire grants settlers 
send Samuel Robinson of Bennington to England. Cumberland County 
set apart by New York (now Windsor and Windham). 

1767. The king forbids New York, until authorized, to grant any more 
land in Vermont — July 24. Death of Robinson — October 27. 

1769. Death of Gov. Moore of New York. Lieut. Gov. Colden disre- 
gards the king's orders in council. The raid on Brackenridge's farm. 

1770. Gov. Dunmore arrives in New York and endeavors to wrest from 
Colden his land fees. More Vermont lands granted. The ejectment suits 



302 Era of dispute. 



at Albany decided against the settlers. Ethan Allen appears as defendants' 
council. Mr. Robinson and others indicted for riot. Gloucester County, 
north of Cumberland, constituted. 

1771. Gov. Tryon appointed. He continues the illegal granting of Ver- 
mont townships. Sheriff Ten Eyck and posse attempt to take Bracken- 
ridge's farm, but are driven off by a show of force. The townships form 
committees. Organization of the Green Mountain Boys. Surveyor Cock- 
burn frightened away from Socialborough. A reward offered for the arrest 
of Allen, Baker and others. 

1772. Jehiel Hawley and James Brackenridge repair to England to 
petition the king. Tryon ceases the grants. The British Board of Trade 
condemns the land jobbers. Justice Munroe's capture of Remember Baker 
and his rescue by neighbors. The Fays sent to New York to negotiate a 
truce. Charlotte County constituted by New York, lying on both sides of 
the lake. 

1773. Col. Reid's tenants driven from Otter Creek. The " Durham 
(Clarendon) Rebellion " dealt with by the Green Mountain Boys. 

1774. Reward offered for Allen, Baker, Warner and others concerned in 
the Durham disturbance and other acts of violence. Counter proclamation 
by settlers. Congress of delegates at Philadelphia. Tryon goes to England. 

1775. Benjamin Hough whipped — January 30. The Westminster mas- 
sacre — March 13. Battle of Lexington. — April 19. Capture of Ticonde- 
roga — May 10. Assembling of Continental Congress — May 10. Forma- 
tion of Committees of safety. Gov. Tryon issues patents for 63,000 acres 
of land from his ship in New York harbor. Regiment of Green Mountain 
Boys formed. Invasion of Canada. Allen captured — September 25. 
Capture of St. Johns. 

1776. Retreat from Canada. Meeting of Vermont convention and adop- 
tion of petition to Congress. Westminster convention — June 21. Decla- 
ration of Independence — July 4 Dorset Convention — July 24. Dorset 
joint Convention — September 25. Carleton's aimless expedition down 
Lake Champlain. 

1777. Westminster Convention — January 15. Declaration of Indepen- 
dence — January 17. Petitions to Congress by both New York and Massa- 
chusetts. Windsor Convention — June 4 also July 2. Constitution adopted 
— July 8. Slavery prohibited. Council of safety named. Burgoyne's in- 
vasion. Evacuation of Ticonderoga — July 6. Battle of Hubbardton — 
July 7. Loan office opened. Property of Tories sold. Battle of Benning- 
ton — August 16. Stark censured by Congress — August 19. Gates suc- 
ceeds Schuyler. P>urgoyne's surrender — October 17. George Clinton, an 
enemy of Vermont, becomes Governor of New York. 

1778. Building of frontier forts by the Vermonters. British raiders on 
the lake among the farmers. Thomas Chittenden elected governor. Legis- 
lature meets at Windsor — March 12. Confiscation of Tory lands. Ethan 
Allen's return from prison. Redding hung as a traitor — June 11. Union 
of western New Hampshire towns with \'erniont proposed. 



ERA OF FORMATION. 



303 



1779. A code of laws adopted. Officers of New York regiment raised 
in Vermont arrested and fined. Legislature meets at Windsor — June 2. 
Congress appoints a committee to e.xamine into the boundary dispute. No 
action follows. New Hampshire renews her claim to Vermont. Massachu- 
setts makes a similar claim. Congress, as before, is afraid of positive action. 
Vermont sends agents to Philadelphia. Vermont's " Appeal to the World " 
published. 

1780. New York and New Hampshire plan to divide Vermont. Ira 
Allen and Stephen R. Bradley sent to Philadelphia. Caileton comes up the 
lake with a British force and takes Fort Ann. Ethan Allen calls out the 
militia. Sack of Royalton — October 16. Allen's truce with Carleton. 
Vermont begins a counter movement for a union with New York and New 
Hampshire towns. 

1781. Allen submits to Congress Col. Robinson's letter of March 30, 
1780. Gov. Chittenden's proclamation anne.xing the new towns — July 18. 
Congress declares it an " indispensable preliminary " to Vermont's admission 
that she give up the new towns. Vermont demurs. New York protests 
against the admission of the new State. Ira Allen sent to Canada to treat 
for exchange of prisoners. The intrigue with the British. The killing of 
Sergeant Tupper and the British general St. Leger's message of regret cause 
popular suspicion. The British general Haldimand presses to proclaim Ver- 
mont a crown province but is put off by the Vermont agents. Chittenden 
appeals to Washington — November 14. Conflicts of authority between 
Vermont peace officers and those of New York and New Hampshire. The 
fall of Yorktown — October 19. 

1782. Washington writes to Chittenden, advising Vermont to give up an- 
nexed New York and New Hampshire towns — January i. The Legisla- 
ture complies, a committee of Congress favors the admission of Vermont, 
but the consideration of the report is postponed. The " Windham County 
Rebellion," arising from the commissioning by New York of civil and mili- 
tary officers in Southeastern Vermont. Their conflicts of authority with 
New York officers put down by Allen and the militia. The offenders ban- 
ished. The negotiations with the British languish. Congress condemns 
the severity of Vermont toward the Windham County '" Yorkers " — Decem- 
ber 5 — and orders the return of their property under pain of military inva- 
sion. The order disregarded. 

1783. Vermont protests against the December resolutions. New York 
calls for their enforcement and Washington objects to the use of the army 
for that purpose. The Windham refugees (Church, Phelps, Shattuck and 
others) return to Vermont and are rearrested. Peace with Great Britain — 
September 3. 

THE ERA OF FORMATION. 

1784. Congress Committee reports against New York — May 29. Ver- 
mont ceases to press for admission to the Union. A State post-office es- 
tablished. Death of Seth Warner — December 26. 



)°4 ERA OF- DEVELOPMENT. 



1785. Legislation passed to quiet land titles in dispute. State coinage 
begun and a mint founded at Rupert. 

1786. Final settlement of New York's Massachusetts boundary. Ver- 
mont constitution revised. 

1787. Bill to cede jurisdiction of Vermont passes New York Assembly 
but fails in Senate. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. 

1788. The National Constitution ratified. Kentucky applies for admis- 
sion and Northern States desire admission of Vermont as a counter 
movement. 

1789. Death of Ethan Allen — February 12. A bill providing for com- 
missioners to negotiate with Vermont passes New York Legislature — July 
14. Vermont likewise creates a commission — October 23. 

1790. The joint commission meets in New York — February. The act 
of appointment of the New York commissioners proves defective. A new 
act passed — March 6. October 7 the commissioners make a provisional 
arrangement. Vermont's Legislature ratifies the agreement — October 28 
— and appropriates $30,000 to pay New York's claims in full. 

1791. U. S. Constitution ratified — January 10. Congress passes act of 
admission. Vermont becomes a State — March 4. 

1795. George Clinton's term as governor of New York ends. 
1797. Death of Gov. Chittenden — August 25. 

1800. Removals of Federal officials. Middlebury College founded. 
University of Vermont opened. 

1801. Thomas Jefferson, President. The republicans, or French party, 
gain control of the Legislature. 

1802. Ohio admitted to the Union. 

1803. Proposed banks for Windsor and Burlington defeated. 

1804. President Jefferson re-elected. The Massachusetts amendment 
limiting representation of slave States defeated in Vermont. Judges charged 
with exacting illegal fees. 

1805. The accused judges declared innocent. Montpelier designated as 
the State capital after 1808. 

i8o5. State banks at Woodstock and Middlebury established. 

1807. Penitentiary at Windsor authorized. Israel Smith, Republican, 
governor. 

THE ERA OF DEVELOPMENT. 

1808. Legislature meets at Montpelier. James Madison elected presi- 
dent. Fight with smugglers on the lake. One of them hanged. National 
Temperance Society founded at Saratoga. Steam transit on Lake Cham- 
plain. 

1809. Jonas Galusha, governor. 

1810. Bills of Bank of U. S. made legal tender. State banks prove a 
failure. 

181 1. Remarkable floods. Renewal of U. S. Bank charter refused by 
Republicans. Private banks chartered in Vermont. 



ERA OF DEVELOPMENT. 305 



1812. Madison re-elected president. War with Great Britain. Death of 
Robert Cochran — July 3. The State pledges its support to the war, de- 
clares non-intercourse with Canada, and levies a war tax. 

1813. Chittenden elected governor by the Legislature. The Federalists' 
brief triumph. The war measures repealed. The Growler and Eagle taken 
by the British — June 2. The British at Plattsburg — July 30. Governor 
Chittenden orders the militia home — November 10. McDonough in win- 
ter quarters — December 19. 

1814. Death of Ira Allen — January 7. British repulsed from Otter 
Creek — May 14. Battle of Plattsburg and Lake Champlain — Septem- 
ber II. 

1815. Peace declared. Act granting monopoly of steam navigation 
passed and declared unconstitutional. The Republicans in control. 

1816. The cold summer. The charter of the U. S. Bank renewed. 
James Monroe elected president. The " era of good feeling." 

1817. Monroe visits Vermont. Another bad summer. 

1818. Death of Dr. Jonas Fay— March 6. 

1820. Madison re-elected. The " era of good feeling" continued. Pro- 
test against the admission of Missouri as a slave State. 

1822. Lake Champlain canal opened. State Medical School founded. 
Death of John Stark — May 8. 

1823. Act prohibiting horse racing passed. 

1824. End of "era of good feeling." The Monroe party divided. 
Lafayette visits America. Burning of the University building. 

1825. J. Q. Adams, president. Lafayette lays corner-stone of New 
University building — June 29. Lafayette at Windsor — June 28. Board 
of Canal Commissioners appointed. Erie Canal opened. 

--^ 1826. American Temperance Society at Boston founded. 

1827. General school act passed. 

1828. William Lloyd Garrison comes to Bennington. New tariff passed 
which greatly encourages wool growing. Andrew Jackson elected president. 

1829. Censure of Nullification doctrine. The Anti-Masonic party 
organized. 

1830. U. S. branch bank founded in Burlington. Great floods. Anti- 
Masonic party in Vermont. Death of Stephen R.Bradley — December 9. 
The first railroad opened in England and America. 

1831. Railroad and bank charters issued in Vermont. Anti-Masonic 
governor, Palmer, elected. 

1832. New State House projected. Anti-Masonic party still controlling 
the State. U. S. Bank tries to get its charter renewed and fails. Jackson 
elected president. Vermont electors for Wirt, the Anti-Masonic candidate. 

1833. Palmer still governor. Great distress caused by withdrawal of 
\ bank loans. Beginnings of Temperance legislation in Vermont. 

1834. Last year of Anti-Masonic control. Slavery question discussed. 

1835. The Rev. Samuel J. May and other anti-slavery speakers mobbed 
in Vermont. 



3o6 ERA OF PROGRESS. 



1836. Constitution amended. The wheat crop fails. Jackson's specie 
circular issued. American Temperance Union founded at Saratoga. 

1837. The panic begins. Van Buren, president. Specie payment sus- 
pended. The wheat crop again a failure. The patriot movement in Canada. 
Legislature adopts anti-slavery resolutions. 

THE ERA OF PROGRESS. 

1838. End of the panic. Specie payments resumed — May 15. Silk cul- 
ture encouraged by the Legislature. Governor Jenison's warning to the 
patriots. Surrender of the patriot army — December 29. Death of Isaac 
Tichenor — December 11. 

1839. Revised statutes adopted. Legislative protests against the slave 
trade in the District of Columbia. 

1840. Washingtonian Temperance movement begun in Baltimore. Act to 
give escaped slaves a trial by jury passed. Harrison, the Whig candidate, 
receives Vermont's vote and is elected. 

1841. The Legislature protests against the admission of Texas. 

1842. More protests against the admission of slave States. The cold 
winter and the epidemic. The Legislature calls upon the Government to 
abolish slavery. 

1843. The issuance of warrants for escaped slaves forbidden by law. 
Appropriations made for agricultural societies. Death of Nathaniel 
Chipman — February 13. 

1844. A license law passed. More anti-slavery protests. James K. 
Polk elected president. Vermont's vote cast for Clay. 

1846. A local option law passed. Maine passes a prohibitive law. Ver- 
mont votes on the license question. War against Mexico begun. 

1847. End of Mexican War. Burlington Savings Bank chartered. 

1848. General Taylor elected president. Protests against slavery by the 
Legislature. 

1849. Slavery declared a crime against humanity. Burlington and 
Windsor and Rutland and Burlington Railroads. 

1850. The sale of liquor for medicinal purposes entrusted to public 
agents. The compromise measure adopted by Congress. State's attorneys 
instructed to defend slaves claimed by their masters in Vermont. Michi- 
gan adopts a prohibitory liquor law. Railroads from Rutland and White- 
hall and from F^ssex Junction to Rouse's Point. 

1851. Railroad from White River Junction to St. Johnsliury. 

1852. Passage of the prohibitory law. Franklin Pierce president. 

1853. Further temperance legislation. 

1854. Formation of the Republican party. Further temperance legisla- 
tion. 

1855. Statue to Allen authorized. Further temperance legislation. 

1856. James Buchanan elected president. Fremont carries Vermont. 
Legislature appropriates twenty thousand dollars for " bleeding Kansas." 



ERA OF PROGRESS. 30/ 



1857. Resolution condemning the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme 
Court. Financial difficulties. Kansas appropriation repealed. 

1858. Vermont's '' emancipation proclamation." All negroes in the 
State or hereafter brought into it declared free. Perfecting the prohibition 
law. Vermont Homoeopathic Medical Society founded. 

i860. Lincoln elected president. Secession ordinances passed by South- 
ern States. Vermont's militia prepares for action. 

1861. President Lincoln inaugurated. Sumter fired upon by the rebels 
— April 2. The President's call for troops — April 15. Governor Fair- 
bank's call — April 15. First Vermont regiment formed — April 19. The 
Battle of Bull Run — July 21. Special sessions of the Legislature. Prompt 
and generous war acts. First brigade formed. 

1862. Organizing the armies. Gallantry of Vermont troops at Lee's 
Mills and Savage's Station. Rapid formation of new regiments. 

1863. The dark days of Rebellion. Valor of Vermonters at Marye's 
Heights. They turn the scale at Gettysburg — July i, 2, 3, 4. Mob duty 
in New York. Union victories. 

1864. Vermont troops in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, 
Cold Spring Harbor, Winchester. Lincoln elected president. The St. 
Albans raid — October 19. 

1865. The end of rebellion. Vermont troops lead the charge at Peters- 
burg. Lee's surrender — April 9. Lincoln's assassination — April 14. 
The return of the soldiers. 

1866. Constitutional amendments and the Reconstruction acts. The 
recovery from the war. 

1867. Wool growing and other Vermont industries encouraged by the 
Morrill tariff. 

1868. Grant chosen president. Vermont's enormous Republican majority. 

1869. Meeting of the Council of Censors. Proposed constitutional 
amendments. 

1870. The Constitutional Convention. Amendments adopted doing 
away with Council of Censors and making legislative sessions and State 
elections biennial. The Fenian raid on Canada. 

1871. The amendments ratified by the people. Liquor war at Rutland. 
1872 Re-election of President Grant. First session of the biennial 

legislature. 

1873. The beginning of the financial panic. Vermont's debt greatly re- 
duced and its credit good. Decrease in value of dairy products. 

1874. The financial stringency continues. Measures of retrenchment 
by the Legislature. 

1875. Centennial of the death of French and the capture of Ticonderoga. 

1876. Centennial of the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia. 
Hayes elected president. 

1877. Centennial of the Vermont Declaration and of the adoption of the 
Constitution. Great celebration at Bennington on the anniversary of the 
battle. 



3oS ERA OF PROGRESS. 

1878. Many town centennials about this time. Recovering from tlie 
panic. 

1879. Very cold wave — January 3. Success of the resumption of spe- 
cie payments and the refunding of the U. S. bonds. 

1880. Senator Edmunds nominated for president. James A. Garfield 
elected. Legislature proposes Constitutional amendments. 

1881. Assassination of President Garfield — July 2. Centennial of York- 
town's evacuation. 

1882. Constitutional amendments passed again by Legislature. They 
provide for the popular election of Secretary of State and make U. vS. 
officials ineligible to State offices. The tax law reformed. Property to be 
taxed at its full value. First encampment, Sons of Veterans. Law provid- 
ing for the study of physiology in schools. 

1883. Amendments ratified by the people. The tariff revised by Con- 
gress. A lower duty on wool. 

1884. Edmunds again proposed for president. Grover Cleveland elected. 
Vermont's vote cast for Blaine. 

1885. Professor Phelps appointed minister to Great Britain. Removals 
of many Federal officials. 

i885. Completion of State Library. Protests of Vermont's representa- 
tives in Congress against lowering the tariff. 

1887. The Interstate Commerce Bill, favored by Vermont, becomes a 
law. The Burlington winter carnival. Terrible railroad accident at 
Woodstock. 

1888. Great storm — March 12. Centennial of New Hampshire's State- 
hood — June 21. Formation of State Board of Trade. Brooks Library at 
Brattleboro opened. State farm purchased for agricultural experiments. 
President Cleveland's tariff message. The Mills tariff reduction bill 
opposed by Vermont members of Congress but passed by the House of 
Representatives. Benjamin Harrison elected president. 

1889. Senate tariff bill passed. Senators Edmunds and Morrill vote in 
favor of it. The House fails to concur. Redfield Proctor appointed Sec- 
retary of War — March 5. 

Vermont has contributed to the direction and development of the United 
States two Presidents /;-(? tein. of the Senate, Stephen R. Bradley (1802) and 
Solomon Foot (1862), a Postmaster General, Jacob Callamer (1849), ^'""^ 3- 
Secretary of War, I'iedfield Proctor (18S9). Two Presidents, Rutherford B. 
Hayes and Chester A. Arthur, were born in Vermont, though later they be- 
came residents of other States, and the list of Vermont boys accredited to 
other States as Governors, Senators and Representatives is a long one. 



THE PEOPLE'S COVENANT. 

AS EMBODIED IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE 
OF VERMONT. 

The first Constitution of the State of Vermont was adopted July 8, 1777, 
and its provisions have formed the basis of subsequent amendments and 
revisions. Its most noticeable features were its prohibition of slavery 
within the State and the fear its framers evidently felt lest the General 
Assembly should usurp too much power. The first, coming at a time when 
slavery was legal in all the other colonies, has reflected great credit upon 
the State and its founders. The second, constraining the builders of the 
Constitution to limit too closely the powers of the Legislature, compelled a 
revision in 1786. 

A new Constitution was adopted July 4, 1793, soon after the admission 
of the State, and though amended in some important particulars, most of 
its sections still stand. This Constitution consists of two chapters or parts, 
subdivided into twenty-one articles and forty-three sections which are here 
condensed to the briefest possible limits : 



A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE STATE OF 
VERMONT. 

Article I. declares that all men are born equally free and independent and 
prohibits slavery forever within the State. 

Article II. asserts the right of the State to use private property when 
necessary and the right of the owner to receive compensation therefor. 

Article III. while commending Christian worship and the keeping of the 
Sabbath or Lord's day, provides that all citizens shall be free to worship 
God according to the dictates of their consciences, without any abridgment 
of rights or privileges. 

Article IV. declares that every person in the State must find in its laws 
full, free, prompt and legal redress for all wrongs or injuries. 

Article K. reserves to the people of the State the right, by their repre- 
sentatives, of governing its police. 

Article VI. describes all State officers as servants of the people, deriving 
power from them and accountable to them. 

309 



3IO THE CONSTITUTION. 



Article VII. sets forth the right of the people to reform or alter the 
government. 

Ai-ticle VIII. declares that all elections should be free and without cor- 
ruption, and all freemen should have the right to vote, and be eligible to 
office. 

Article IX. states that citizens enjoying the law's protection are bound to 
uphold the law by payment of taxes and by personal service. 

Article X. defines the rights of the accused in criminal proceedings to a 
fair trial and defense by counsel. 

Article XI. protects the persons, possessions and houses of the people 
from search or seizure except by proper warrant. 

Article XII. declares the right of jury trial sacred. 

Article XIII. guarantees free speech and a free press. 

Article XIV. provides that no action at law or prosecution can be founded 
upon words used in debate in the Legislature. 

Ai'ticle XV. reserves to the Legislature the power of suspending laws or 
their execution. 

Article XVI. declares for the right of the people to bear arms and against 
standing armies in time of peace. 

Article XJ'II. restricts martial law to persons in military service. 

Article XVIII. enjoins upon the people the duty of exacting right con- 
duct on the part of legislators and magistrates. 

Ai-ticle XIX. asserts the right of the people to emigrate from one State 
to another. 

Article XX. upholds the right of assembly and petition. 

Article XXI. prohibits transportation of criminals to another State. 



IL 



PLAN OF GOVERNMENT. 

Sections One, Two and Three fix the Legislative power in a House of 
Representatives and the executive power in a Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor and Council. 

Section Four establishes courts of justice. 

Section Five empowers a future Legislature to create a Court of 
Chancery. 

Section Six provides that executive, legislative and judicial powers shall 
be separate and distinct. 

Section Seven fixes the ratio of representation in the House. 

Section Eight names the first Tuesday of each September election day. 

Section Nine fixes a quorum of the House, prescribes the power of 
members and gives them, collectively, the title of the General Assembly of 
the State of Vermont. 



THE CONSTITUTION. 3^1 



Section Ten, now no longer in force, constituted an executive Council 
of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and twelve Councilors, and described the 
manner of their election. 

Section Eleven defined the powers of Governor and Council. 

Section Twelve prescribes the oath of office for Representatives. 

Section Thirteen provides that the deliberations of the Assembly shall 
be open to the public except when the welfare of the State forbids. 

Section Fourteen provides for the printing of Assembly proceedings. 

Section Fifteen gives the " style " of the laws. 

Section Sixteen, now no longer in force, to prevent hasty legislation, 
gave the Governor and Council the right to suspend the operation of laws 
until the next session of the Legislature. 

Section Seventeen prohibits expenditure of money except by act of 
the Legislature. 

Section Eighteen gives the qualifications of Representatives. 

Section Nineteen seeks to prevent the acceptance of fees or bribes by 
legislators. 

Section Twenty prohibits the Legislature declaring any person guilty 
of treason or felony. 

Section Twenty-one gives the right of suffrage to males twenty-one 
years of age who have resided in the State one year. 

SectionTwenty-two provides for a militia. 

Section Twenty-three relates to commissions. 

Section Twenty-four describes the process of impeaching State officers. 

Section Twenty-five is intended to regulate the compensation of 
officers. 

Section Twenty-six prohibits the holding of more than one State 
office by the same person at the same time. 

Sections Twenty-seven and Twenty-eight provide for the proper 
performance of the duties of Treasurer and the auditing of his accounts. 

Section Twenty-nine prescribes the form of oath to be taken by State 
officers. 

Section Thirty declares that no person shall be eligible to the office of 
Governor or Lieutenant-Governor who has not resided in the State four 
years. 

Section Thirty-one affirms the right of jury trial of civil causes. 

Section Thirty-two gives the legal form of indictments. 

Section Thirty-three forbids imprisonment for debt and the fixing of 
excessive bail for bailable offenses. 

Section Thirty-four prescribes forfeitures and penalties for those guilty 
of bribery at elections. 

Section Thirty-five provides for the recording of deeds. 

Section Thirty-six directs the Legislature to regulate entails so as to 
"prevent perpetuities." 

Section Thirty-seven pronounces in favor of employing prisoners at 
hard labor. 



THE CONSTITUTION. 



Section Thirty-eight confirms the right of suicides' heirs to inherit 
their property. 

Section Thirty-nine, since modified, gave to every immigrant the right 
to hold real estate, and provided that after one year's residence he could 
vote. 

Section Forty asserts the right of the people of the State to hunt and 
fish within its limits under proper regulations. 

Section Forty-one calls for laws to prevent vice, for the establishment 
of a sufificient number of schools and for the encouragement of religious 
and charitable societies. 

Section Forty-two makes the declaration of rights an inviolable part 
of the Constitution of the State. 

Section Forty-three, not now in force, provided for a Council of Cen- 
sors to meet once in seven years, whose duty it was to inquire whether the 
Constitution and laws had been observed, to recommend the passage and 
repeal of laws and, if thought necessary, to call a Convention to consider 
amendments suggested by the Censors. 

III. 

Amendments and Additions. 

It will be seen by the last section that no provision was made for the 
adoption of an entirely new Constitution, as in other States, but from time 
to time amendments have been made. 

The first of these, adopted in 1828, restricts the suffrage to native or nat- 
uralized residents. 

The ne.xt amendment, in twelve Articles, was passed in 1836. It abolishes 
the Governor's Council and establishes in its place a Senate, whose thirty 
members are elected one from each county and the remainder apportioned 
according to population. All bills appropriating money are to originate in 
the House of Representatives, but the Senate is sole judge of the qualifica- 
tions of its members and has the power of impeachment. The Lieutenant- 
Governor is President of the Senate e.xcept when acting as Governor, when 
an acting President is chosen. To the Governor is given the power of veto- 
ing bills passed by the Assembly ; but vetoed bills, when repassed by a bare 
majority of Senate and House, become laws. The concluding paragraphs 
provide that the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, and that 
portions of the Constitution of 1783 inconsistent with the amendment shall 
be repealed. 

In 1870 two otlier important amendments were passed. The first pro- 
vides that the General Assembly shall meet biennially on the first Wednes- 
day of October. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Treasurer, Senators, 
Representatives, Assistant Judges of County Court, Sheriffs, High Bailiffs, 
State's Attorneys, Judges of Probate and Supreme Court and Justices of 
Peace are elected on the first Tuesday in September. The terms of the 



THE CONSTITUTION 313 



State oificers commence when they are chosen and qualified, of the Senators 
and Representatives on the first Wednesday of October, and of the other 
officials named on the first of December. 

The second of the 1870 amendments abolishes the Council of Censors 
and provides that at the session of the General Assembly for 1870 and each 
tenth year thereafter, the Senate can, by a two thirds vote, propose amend- 
ments to the Constitution which, if concurred in by a majority of the House 
of Representatives, are referred to the next General Assembly and published 
in the newspapers. If again passed by both Houses they are submitted to 
popular vote, and if supported by a majority of the voters become an effec- 
tive portion of the Constitution. The powers formerly belonging to the 
Council of Censors are now conferred upon the House of Representatives, 
and Section Forty-three of the original Constitution is abrogated. 

In 1880 twenty-two amendments were proposed by the Senate. These 
were cut down in the House to six. The Assembly of 1882 cut the number 
down to two and these were ratified by vote of the people in 1883. The 
first amendment provides for the election of the Secretary of State by the 
people, and the second prohibits the election of United State officials as 
legislators. 



A SELECTION OF BOOKS 

TOUCHING UPON THE STORY OF VERMONT. 

The student of Vermont's history will soon discover that, 
while what may be called the heroic age of the Commonwealth 
has inspired a comparatively large number of writers and 
formed the theme of many interesting books, the not unevent- 
ful century since its admission as a State has received scant 
attention. The period of the Green Mountain Boys, the 
unquiet times between the close of the last French war in 1763 
and the successful issue of the Revolution twenty years later, 
has always been the favorite of the Vermont historians, but the 
more recent history of the State must be gathered, a scrap here 
and a scrap there, from a variety of sources ; and this fact must 
explain and excuse the inclusion in the following list of some 
volumes which may seem to have but a remote relation to the 
subject. No general history of the State has been recently 
published, and the best extant do not bring its story beyond the 
beginning of the present century, 

Williams' " History of Vermont " covers the history of the State up to 
the close of the eighteenth century, and a later edition adds a few years to 
the record. This boolv is old and somewhat rare. Hiland Hall's " Early 
History of Vermont " tells its story up to 1791 and is probably the best his- 
tory extant of that period. B. H. Hall's " History of Eastern Vermont " is 
hardly a general work, as its name implies, but is very full and painstaking. 
Chase's " Gathered Sketches from the Early History of Vermont and New 
Hampshire " is a collection of frontier tales and legends. The character of 
H. W. DuPuy's "Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Heroes of 1776" 
is indicated by its title. Ira Allen's " Natural and Political History " was 
published in London at the close of the last century, and is mainly devoted 
to the New Hamphsire controversy. Graham's " Present State of Ver- 
mont," published in London in 1797, is more curious than Allen's book but 
less valuable. The Rev. Hosea Beckley's History is an unmethodical but 
chatty and readable account of Vermont up to about 1S40. Zadock Tiionip- 
son's Gazetteer, along with much other matter, relates the legislative pro- 

3'4 



BOOKS RELATING TO VERMONT. 315 



ceedingsof the State up to 1841, with some account of religious, educational 
and other forms of activity. A very brief appendix was published in 1853. 

The story of the discovery of New France, of which Vermont was a part, 
may fitly be read in the works of such old chroniclers as Charlevoix and 
Joliet. Champlain's account of his voyage up Lake Champlain is in his 
translated works and is full of interest. Champlain's style is much more 
modern than that of the English writers of a century or more later and his 
book reads like a novel. The character and experiences of the early settlers 
may be studied from such works as Williams' " Redeemed Captive," Hub- 
bell's " Narration of the Sufferings of the Early Settlers of Wolcott," 
Sparks' " Life of Ethan Allen " in his American Biographies, Mrs. Ellet's 
" Women of the Revolution," wherein is an account of Jane McCrea, and 
in Everett's " Life of Stark." 

The complicated controversy with New York and New Hampshire is 
fully told in the general histories mentioned in the first paragraph, but the 
curious can consult further E. Allen and J. Jay's " Refutation of the Claims 
of New Hampshire and Massachusetts," Bradley's " Vermont's Appeal to 
the World," Slade's " State Papers of Vermont," the fourth volume of the 
"Documentary History of New York " and an article in the Historical 
Magazine in 1869 and another in 1873. 

The Revolutionary period may be studied with special reference to the 
part played in that war by Vermont in the general histories, and in Headley's 
" Life of Schuyler," Everett's " Life of Stark," Riedesel's Journal and Mme. 
Riedesel's Memoirs, Burgoyne's Narrative, Stark's account of Bennington in 
the New Hampshire State Papers, the volume published on the centennial 
celebration of Bennington, and the articles under the appropriate headings 
in " Hemenway's Gazetteer." 

The period of the growth of parties is treated only by Thompson of the 
historians mentioned and his account may be supplemented by the various 
lives of Adams and Jackson, by Benton's " Thirty Years " and Van Buren's 
" Political History." The anti-masonic movement is treated in these books 
and in the " Life of William Wirt." The canals are discussed in the special 
works on the subject, and in Tuckerman's " Life of Clinton and Others." 
The Canadian troubles of 1837 and succeeding years are fully told in Lind- 
sey's " Life and Times of W. L. Mackenzie." The anti-slavery agitation is 
described in S. J. May's " Recollections," Wilson's " Rise and Fall of the Slave 
Power," the " Life of Garrison," by his children, and a vast number of other 
books, and in a monogi-aph on Slavery in Vermont by Hiland Hall in the New 
England Register for 1875. The histories respectively of the growth of the 
railroads and of the temperance movement figure in the special works on 
those subjects and in the statute books of the State. 

The authoritative work upon the share of the Green Mountam troops in 
the Civil War is Benedict's " Vermont in the Civil War." It is supple- 
mented by a vast number of general war histories, by monographs upon 
Gettysburg and the Wilderness and by the war papers in the Century Maga- 
zme, which are the latest word upon many disputed points. Such works as 



3i6 BOOKS RELATING TO VERMONT. 



Walker's "The Vermont Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley" and Haynes' 
" History of the Tenth Regiment," and many memorial volumes also bear 
witness to the interest shown by Vermonters in their second heroic age. 

Works which defy classification are Hemenway's ponderous Gazetteer 
in four volumes, which contains much general as well as local historical 
matter, the " Poets and Poetry of Vermont," by the same editor, a large 
number of local histories of counties and towns, a few of them admirable, 
but the greater part of comparatively little value ; Slaf ter's " Vermont Coin- 
age," and articles upon the geology of Vermont in the American Journal of 
Science for iS68 and 1877, its fossil remains in Hours at Home for 1866, 
and its archaeology in the American Naturalist for 1881. 

Better worth reading than many volumes to which reference has been 
made, perhaps, are the works of fiction having Vermont for their scene. 
Among these the foremost place is occupied by D. P. Thompson's " Green 
Mountain Boys on the March," " May Martin," " Locke Amsden," " Gaunt 
Gurley" and "The Rangers." J. G. Holland's "Bay Path " deals with the 
life of the early settlers of Massachusetts, and Mrs. Stowe's " Oldtown 
Folks" pictures New England country life in a community not far different 
from Vermont. The time and scene of Cooper's " Deer Slayer " and " Last of 
the Mohicans " are those of the last French war along the lake. A later 
phase of quiet country life in Vermont is given by Rowland E. Robinson 
in his quaint dialect sketches, " Uncle Lisha's Shop " and " Sam Level's 
Camps." 



INDEX 



Abolitionists, 187. 

Adams, Dr. Samuel, punishment of, 51. 
Addison, fort at, 31. 

Agriculture, 146, 178, 272 ; agricultural soci- 
eties, 203; agricultural implements, 181, 
272 : agricultural studies at University, 290. 
Alien and Sedition laws, 117. 
Albany, 22. 
Allen, Ebenezer, 223. 

Allen, Ethan, 46, 51, 64, 68, 70, 81, 90, 100. 
Allen, Ira, 84, 106. 
Allen, the Rev. Mr., 73. 
Anti-Masonic movement, 185. 
Appomattox, Lee's surrender at, 261. 
Arnold, Benedict, 64. 

Arquebus, 13, 14. 

Baker, Remember, 51, 52, 89. 

Banks, State, 197; U. S. Bank, 191; Sav- 
ings, 286. 

Barns, 205. 

Base-ball, 239. 

Beech Seal, 48. 

" Bees," 158. 

Benedict, 261. 

Bennington chartered, 41 ; battle of, 73. 

Boundary dispute, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44. 

Braddock, 32. 

Bread Riots, 190. 

Brigade, First Vermont, 246, 249, 257. 

Brigade, Second Vermont, 251. 

Bull Run, 243 , Second Regiment at, 244. 

Canada, 22, 30, 68, 71, 72, 266. 

Canal, Erie, 167; Champiain, 153. 

Capitol, the new, i88. 

Caroline, the burning of the, 199. 

Cartier, Jacques, 19. 

Caughnawaga, 30. 

Census figures, 163, 176, 177, 267, 284. 

Champiain, Lake, 12 17, 66, 123, 130. 

Champiain, Samuel de, 14. 

Charge, Pickett's at Gettysburg, 251. 

Chittenden, Martin, 123. 

Chittenden, Samuel, 81, 86, 87, 88, 98, 105, 
115. 

Churches, 154, 290. 



Clinton, Governor of New York, 42, 104, 

106. 
Cold summer, 136. 
Committee of Safety, 93, 99. 
Congress, the U. S., 91, 96, 105, 107. 
Connecticut, 40, 63, 95, 164. 
Constitution, adopted, 97 ; amended, i8g, 
283; of New York, gS ; of the U. S., iii. 
Conventions, 92, 93. 
" Corlaer's Lake," 25. 
Corps, Sixth Army, 250, 261. 
Council, governor's, abolished, 189. 
Council of Censors, 71, 80, 113, 2S0. 
Council, king's orders in, 46. 
Courcelles, governor of Canada, 22. 
Courts, Vermont without, 99. 
Crown Point, iirst settlement at, 31. 
Debt of Vermont, 286. 
Declaration of Independence, Vermont's, 

94. 
Declaration of Peace, 107. 
Deerfield raid, the, 27. 
Delaplaice, Captain, 66. 
Dieskau, Baron, 32. 
Discovery of the St. Lawrence, 27. 
Dorset, conventions at, 92, 93. 
Drunkenness in the U. S., 208. 
Dummer, Fort, 31, 39. 
Durham, 48, 53, 
Edmunds, George F., 277. 

Education, 298. 

Era of Good Feeling, 133. 

Factory system, the, 273. 

Fairbanks, Governor, 238. 

Federalists, 116, 134. 

Fees, of colonial officials, 44. 

Forestry, need of, 295. 

Fort Edward, battle at, 32. 

France in the New World, 14, 25, 26. 

French, William, 57. 

Frontenac, Count, 26. 

Future of Vermont, 291. 

Galusha, Governor Jonas, 122. 

Gates, General, 77. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 224. 



3^7 



3i8 



INDEX. 



Gettysburg, battle of, 250. 

Going to market in tlie old days, 144. 

Green Mountain Boys, 46, 55, 68, 236. 

Growth of Vermont, early, 59. 

Haldimand, General, 84, 87. 

Hochelaga, 18. 

Horses, 180, 276. 

Hough, Benjamin, whipped by the Green 
Mountain Boys, 48. 

Hubbardton, battle of, 72. 

Hudson, Henry, discovers the river named 
for him, 18. 

Hurons, the, 16. 

Imitations of butter and cheese, 274. 

Impnsontnent for debt, 213. 

Iroquois, the, 12, 21. 

Jackson, President, and the panic, 191. 

Jenison, Governor, proclaims the patriot 
movement, 200. 

Lafayette visits Vermont, 137. 

Land law reform, 109. 

Lee's Mills, battle of, 24S. 

Legend of the bell, 29. 

Legislation, recent, 279. 

Libraries, 156, 290. 

Lincoln, 232, 25S. 

Louisbourg taken by the British, 32. 

Lumber, 275. 

Lydius' claim, 53. 

Maine law, the passage of, 210. 

Manufactures in Vermont, 153, 177, 276, 293. 

Maple sugar, 148, 274. 

Massachusetts, Vermont a portion of, 40 ; 
its boundary, 60; renewal of its claim to 
Vermont, 104 ; its slavery proposition, 121. 

Massacre at Fort William Henry, 34. 

Massacre at Schenectady, 26. 

May, the Rev. Samuel J., mobbed in Ver- 
mont, 225. 

McCrea, Jane, 80. 

McDonough, Commodore, 127. 

McLeod, trial of, 200. 

McKenzie, leader of the " Patriots," 199. 

Middlebury College, 288. 

Mob duty in New York, 255. 

Monroe, James, 133. 

Montgomery, Genet al James, 68. 

Montreal, 26, 36, 68. 

Morrill, J. S., 277 ; the Morrill tariff, 275. 

Morris, Dinah, 223. 

Mrs. Howe, the fair captive, 35. 

Napoleon, 132. 

New Amsterdam, 38. 

New Hampshire, 41, 103. 

New York claims Vermont, 42 ; endeavors 



to enforce its claims, 52, 57 ; renounces its 
claims, no; its constitution adopted, 98. 

Newspapers in Vermont, 155. 

" Onontio," 25. 

Oswego, capture of, 33. 

Oxen m Vermont, 181. 

Panic of 1837, 189, 193. 

Parties in Vermont, 116, 135, 277. 

Patriot movement, the, ig8, 201. 

Pay of officials in early times, 113. 

Peace of Utrecht, 31; of 1763, 36; with 
Great Britain, 107. 

Peters, the Rev. Samuel, 37. 

Petersburg, battle of, 259. 

Phelps, Professor E. J., Minister to Eng- 
land, 27S. 

Pitt, William, 34. 

Plank roads, 201. 

Plymouth, iS. 

Prevost, General, 129. 

Prohibition, the law passed, 212 ; in Maine, 
210; foreign criticism upon, 217. 

Protection, resolutions favoring, 284. 

Putnam, Israel, 35. 

Putney, fort at, 39. 

Quarries, 128, 277. 

Railroads, 170; injury effected by their com- 
petition, 272 ; the Inter-State commercs 
law regulating, 284, 293. 

" Raisings," 159. 

Rebellion, the outbreak of, 235 ; in Wind- 
ham County, 106. 

Redding, David, 100. 

Regiments of Vermont, 248, 249. 

Republican party, the, 230. 

Robinson, Samuel, 46. 

Royalton, Indian raid upon, 82. 

Scott, General Winfield, 131. 

Scott, William, 247. 

Schenectady, inassacre at, 26. 

Schuyler, General, 68, 72, S3. 

Senate of Vermont, iSg. 

Settlement of Vermont, 31, 39, 40. 

Sheriff of Albany, 47, 52. 

Slavery prohibited in the Constitution, gS ; 
the Massachusetts amendment relative to, 
121; sympathizers with in the West, 7, 169 ; 
Legislative protests against, 223, 224, 225, 
226,227,228; abolition of slavery in Ver- 
mont, 231. 

Specie Circular, the, 193. 

St. Albans, the raid at, 264. 

Stamp Act, 55. 

St. Lawrence, discovery of, ig. 

Staniiard, General, at Gettysburg, 251, 



INDEX. 



319 



Stark, General, 33, 73, 78- 

Summer people in Vermont, 294. 

Sumter, fall of, 235. 

Tariff, the Morrill, 285 ; of i»28, 152; of 
1883, 275. 

Temperance societies, 210. 

Texas, controversy about, 228. 

Ten Eyck, Sheriff, 52. 

Ticonderoga, battle near, 17; capture of, 63. 

Tories' property confiscated, 99. 

Torture of prisoner by Indians, 18. 

Town Meeting, 157. 

Tupper, Sergeant, 86 

University of Vermont, 289. 

Van Curler, Arendt, 23. 

War of the Revolution, 63 ; of 1812, 123; of 
the Rebellion, 235 ; Vermont in the war, 
236 ; war measures in the Legislature, 239. 

Washington, 106. 



Warner, Seth, 47, 66, 89. 

Wentworth, Governor Benning, 41. 

West, Vermonters in the, 284. 

" Western fever," the, 169. 

Westminster town charter granted, 40; the 

bloody court at, 56. 
Wheat, 149 190. 
Wild animals, 153. 
Wilderness, battle of the, 256. 
Williams, the Rev. John, 28. 
Williams, William, 41. 
Windham rebellion, the, 106. 
Windsor, Constitution, adopted at, 97. 
Wirt, William, vote for President, 186. 
Wolfe's Victory at Quebec, 35. 
Wool, 152, 275. 
Wright, Silas, 165. 
Yorktown, the British surrender at, 87. 



THE STORY OF THE STATES. 

EDITED BY ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS. 

The Story of Vermont is the fourth issue in the 
proposed series of graphic narrations descriptive 
of the rise and development of the American 
Union. It comes as a clear and practical outline of 
the early struggles and continual growth of that 
sturdy Commonwealth whose sons and daughters 
have made its name strong and brave, or, who leav- 
ing it, have borne the love of their native hills 
closely to their hearts. This Story of Vermont is 
at present without a competitor, no history of the 
Green Mountain State having been published for 
over forty years. Every Vermont family, and every 
family who can proudly trace their origin to the 
Mountain Commonwealth should find pride and 
pleasure in this story of the rise of a State. 

Great care is being exercised in the selection of 
writers for the entire series and the expressions of 
popular and critical approval of the plan adopted 
are gratefully acknowledged by the publishers. 

This fourth volume will be speedily followed by 
two others already in press : 

The Story of Kentucky by Emma M. Connelly. 



THE STORY OF THE STATES. 

The Story of Massachusetts by Edward Everett 
Hale. 

The Story of Colorado by Charles M. Skinner 
will be one of the earliest issues in the fall of 
1889. 

Among the other volumes secured for the series, 
several of which are already well toward completion, 
are : 



The Story o: 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o: 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o 
The Story o: 



California . 

Virginia 

Connecticut 

Missouri 

Texas 

Maryland 

Delaware 

the Indian Territory 

Michigan 

the District of Columb 

Oregon 

Maine 

Pennsylvania 

Kansas 

Mississippi . 

Wisconsin . 

Florida 

Alabama 

Tennessee . 

Arkansas 

New Jersey 



By Noah Brooks 

By Marion Harland 

By Sidney Luska 

By Jessie Benton Fremont 

By E. S. Nadal 

By John R. Coryell 

By Olive Thorne Miller 

By George E. Foster 

By Charles Moore 

By Edmund Alton 

By Margaret f:. Sangster 

By Almon Gunnison 

By Olive Risley Seward 

By Willis J. Abbott 

By Laura F. Hinsdale 

By Reuben G. Thwaites 

By S. G. W. Benjamin 

By Annie Sawyer Downs 

By Laura C. Hollo way 

By Octave Thanet 

By Wm. Elliot Griffis 



The stories will be issued at the uniform net 
subscription price of $1.50 per volume. Announc- 
ments of additions to the series will be made in 
succeeding volumes. Inquiries respecting the 
series may be addressed to the publishers, 

D. LOTHROP COMPANY, BOSTON. 



THE STORY OF THE STATES. 



{A Iready published. ) 

The Story of New York, by Elbridge S. Brooks. 

The Story of Ohio, by Alexander Black. 

The Story of Louisiana, by Maurice Thompson. 

8vo, each volume fully illustrated, price ^1.50. 

The initial volumes of this new and notable contribution to 
American history have been so favorably received that little 
doubt can remain as to the need of the series they inaugurate 
and the permanent popularity of the style adopted for their 
telling. 

"Of the series instructively," says the Boston Globe, "one 
can hardly say too much in praise. In a new field it contrib- 
utes essentially and influentially to the right estimation of 
national character and of the mission of the future." 

I — NEW YORK, Every American should read this book. 
It is not dull history. It is story based on historic facts. 
"With all the fascinations of a story," says the Journal of 
Education, " it still remains loyal to historic facts and the pa- 
triotic spirit." 

" A valuable contribution to picturesque history." — Bosioji Advertiser. 

"Vivid, picturesque and entertaining " — Minneapolis Tribune. 

" To one familiar with the historj' of New York State this book will be exceedingly refresh- 
ing and interesting. Mr Brooks is an entertaining writer and his Story of Ne\v York will 
be read with avidity. He is no novice in historic writing. This book will add to his reputa- 
tion and will find its way into thousands of private libraries." — Utica Press. 

II — OHIO. This volume has been received with the most 
enthusiastic approval. No existing work occupies precisely the 
same field. It is at once picture, text-book and story. Mr. 
Black's skill in condensing into so brief a compass so much 
valuable matter, his deft handling of all the varying phases of 
Ohio's story and his picturesque presentation of what in other 
hands might be but the dry details of history have secured 
alike popular recognition and popular approval. 

"To incorporate within some three hundred pages, even an intelligible sketch of the history 
of Oliio is something of a literary feat, and to make such a sketch interesting is still more 
difficuit. Mr. Black, however, has succeeded in doing this. . . . His book is welcome 
and valuable and is well adapted for popular use and reference." — New York Tribicne. 

" One of the warm, lively, picturesque narratives, lighted up with bits of personal, human 
interest and clean glimpses of a people's every-day life which will closely interest the general 
reader." — Chicago Times 



THE STORY OF THE STATES. 



Ill — THE STORY OF LOUISIANA. 

One volume, Svo, T,y] pages, fully illustrated, $1.50. 

Mr. Thompson's brilliant and entertaining outline of the 
history of one of the most picturesque and romantic States 
in all the sisterhood of American commonwealths is full of 
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pleasing presentation of facts. It is, says the Critic, " A 
wonderfully picturesque account of a land abounding in in- 
terest of every sort : landscapes, hereditary singularities, mixed 
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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

'' The manner in whicli this story is told by Mr. Thompson leaves little to be desired . . . 
He has made an absorbing and stirring, but at the same time most thoroughly practical and 
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" Limned in swift adumbration with great spirit and impartiality the book deserves to be 
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"Mr. Thompson's prose is full of the fire and s]-)irit of poetry, and the story could scarcely 
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with a like interest by the jieopleof Illinois and those of Louisiana." — Chicago Inter Ocean. 

"This breaking away from the dull forms of historical statement has its distinctive advan- 
tages from the writer's as well as the reader's standpoint." — Brooklyn Times. 

" Louisiana has one of the most romantic of histories, and the telling of its story loses 
nothing in grace or charm at the hands of Mr Thompson." — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

" We recommend this graphic history to all our readers who are intere.sted in the past, tlie 
present and the probable future of the United States." —Boston Golden RuU. 

" There is not a dull page in the book. The text is as delightful and as breezy as the best 
of Mr. Thomiison's works in fiction . . . The art of a clever workman makes the history 
charminc and the facts are the result of careful research and study on the part of a man who 
never slights any part of his work." — Indiana/olis JVe7vs. 

" Mr. Thompson has sketched the story with sympatliy, and in an agreeable descriptive 
way, not overloading his narrative with details, yet omitting nothing of real significance." — 
Christian Union. 

" The story is picturesque beyond all possibility of greater and more vivid heiglitening . 
The book is one of great popular interest and it is rarely that a work of historical accuracy is 
presented in a garb so graceful and alluring." — Newark Daily Advertiser. 



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